This document discusses principles and methods of vocational and social rehabilitation. It defines vocational rehabilitation as services to help individuals with impairments overcome handicaps and reintegrate into society through employment. Methods of vocational rehabilitation include vocational guidance, training, and placement services. Social rehabilitation aims to help individuals develop skills to participate in everyday life and pursue education. It involves assessing needs and providing rehabilitation services like home help, attendant care, and housing modifications. The document outlines principles, legislation, agencies, and assessment processes involved in vocational and social rehabilitation services.

1. PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF
VOCATIONAL AND SOCIAL
REHABILITATION
PRESENTED BY-
Dr. JASJYOT KAUR SABHARWAL (PT)

2. VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION
• Vocational rehabilitation services are based on individual needs
and defined as any goods or services an individual might need to
be employable, such as assistive technology devices and services.
• For instance, a person who is blind would need screen reading
software to access a computer and people with a cognitive or
mental disability might need a talking electronic reminder device
programmed to prompt them when it is time to perform certain
tasks.

3. • Vocational Rehabilitation is a process that assists individuals with
impairments to overcome their handicaps and try to reintegrate them into
society in to a job or vocation using their residual physical and intellectual
capacities.
• Vocational evaluation procedures take many forms, ranging from
tests for specific functions to more complex assessments.
• This process is undertaken by the vocational counselor, an important
professional in the socio-vocational team who identifies the right vocation,
skill or way of life of these patients. He or she uses information and
procedures to identify the right vocation of the patient.

4. BACKGROUND
• Vocational Rehabilitation agencies, often referred to as “VR”, are in every
state. VR helps people with disabilities prepare and look for a job. VR was
created out of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
• VR programs are run by state agencies. They are designed to help people
with disabilities meet their career goals. They help people with disabilities
get jobs, whether the person is born with a disability, develops a disability or
becomes a person with a disability while working.

5. • Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) is a federal-state program that works with
people who have physical or mental disabilities to prepare for, gain or retain
employment. VR is committed to helping people with disabilities find
meaningful careers.
• In addition to the general customer employment VR has additional specific
programs designed to help eligible people with disabilities become
employed. VR also has some new innovation and expansion projects that will
help more people with disabilities find employment.

6. VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION ACT, 1973
• The Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was put in place to correct the
problem of discrimination against people with disabilities in the United
States.
• Affirmative action programs were established Sections 501, 502, 503, and 504.
The Title V of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act requires private employers
with federal contracts over $2,500 to take affirmative action to hire
individuals with a mental or physical disability. While this means that
employers must make reasonable accommodations for disabled employees, it
does not mean they must hire unqualified individuals

7. PRINCIPLES OF VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION
1. Vocational rehabilitation should be initiated without delay and proceed in
conjunction with medical treatment and physical rehabilitation to restore
the worker’s capabilities as soon as possible.
2. Reasonably necessary vocational rehabilitation assistance will be provided
to overcome the immediate and long-term vocational impact of the
compensable injury, occupational disease or fatality

8. 3. Successful vocational rehabilitation requires that workers be motivated to
take an active interest and initiative in their own rehabilitation. Vocational
programs and services should, therefore, be offered and sustained in direct
response to the commitment and determination of workers to re-establish
themselves.
4. Maximum success in vocational rehabilitation requires that different
approaches be used in response to the unique needs of each individual.
5. Vocational rehabilitation is a collaborative process, which requires the
involvement and commitment of all concerned participants.
6. Effective vocational rehabilitation recognizes, within reason, workers’
personal preferences and their accountability for independent vocational
choices and outcomes.

9. 7. The gravity of the injury and residual disability is a relevant factor in
determining the nature and extent of the vocational rehabilitation assistance
provided. The Board should go to greater lengths in cases where the disability
is serious than in cases where it is minor, including measures to assist workers
to maintain useful and satisfying lives.
8.Where the worker is suffering from a compensable injury or disease together
with some other impediment to a return to work, rehabilitation assistance may
sometimes be needed and provided to address the combined problems.
Rehabilitation assistance should not be initiated or continued when the primary
obstacle to a return to work is non-compensable.
9. Vocational rehabilitation services should be provided in a cost- effective
manner.

10. METHODS OF VOCATIONAL
REHABILITATION
• All necessary and practicable measures should be taken to establish or
develop specialized vocational guidance services for disabled persons
requiring aid in choosing or changing their occupation.
• The process of vocational guidance should include:
a) Interview with a vocational guidance officer
b) Examination of record of work experience
c) Examination of scholastic or other records relating to training or education
received
d) Medical examination for vocational guidance

11. e) Appropriate tests of capacity and aptitude and where desirable other
psychological test
f) Technical trade test, either verbal or where seems necessary
g) Analysis of physical capacity in relation to occupational requirements and
the possibility of improving that capacity
h) Provision of information concerning employment and training opportunities
related to qualification, physical capacities, aptitudes, preferences and
experience of person concerned and to needs of employment market
• The principles, measures and methods of vocational training generally
applied in the training of non-disabled persons should apply to disabled
persons in so far as medical and educational conditions permit

12. 1. The training of disabled persons should, wherever possible, enable them to
carry on an economic activity in which they can use their vocational
qualifications or aptitudes in the light of employment prospects.
2. For this purpose, such training should be--
a. coordinated with selective placement, after medical advice, in occupations
in which the performance of the work involved is affected by, or affects, the
disability to the least possible degree;
b. provided, wherever possible and appropriate, in the occupation in which
the disabled person was previously employed or in a related occupation;
c. continued until the disabled person has acquired the skill necessary for
working normally on an equal basis with non-disabled workers if he is
capable of doing so
• Wherever possible, disabled persons should receive training with and under
the same conditions as non-disabled persons.

13. • Special services should be set up or developed for training disabled persons who,
particularly by reason of the nature or the severity of their disability, cannot be
trained in company with non-disabled persons.
• Measures should be taken to develop special arrangements for the placement of
disabled persons.
• These arrangements should ensure effective placement by means of--
(a) registration of applicants for employment;
(b) recording their occupational qualifications, experience and desires;
(c) interviewing them for employment;
(d) evaluating, if necessary, their physical and vocational capacity;
(e) encouraging employers to notify job vacancies to the competent authority;
(f) contacting employers, when necessary, to demonstrate the employment capacities of
disabled persons, and to secure employment for them;
(g) assisting them to obtain such vocational guidance, vocational training, medical and
social services as may be necessary.

14. • Follow-up measures should be taken--
(a) to ascertain whether placement in a job or recourse to vocational training or
retraining services has proved to be satisfactory and to evaluate employment
counselling policy and methods;
(b) to remove as far as possible obstacles which would prevent a disabled person from
being satisfactorily settled in work.
• Measures should be taken to enable disabled persons to make full use of all
available vocational rehabilitation services and to ensure that some authority is
made responsible for assisting personally each disabled person to achieve maximum
vocational rehabilitation.
• Such measures should include--
(a) information and publicity on the availability of vocational rehabilitation services
and on the prospects which they offer to the disabled;
(b) the provision of appropriate and adequate financial assistance to disabled persons.

15. SOCIAL REHABILITATION
• Social rehabilitation is meant for all persons with a disability and persons
with partial or no work ability, who require support in their everyday life, in
order to cope with limitations arising from their disability or special needs.
• The aim of the rehabilitation is to teach and develop a person’s coping skills
with everyday life, improve their possibilities for social participation,
support their studies and develop pre-requisites for partial obtainmentor
restoration of work ability on some level.
• The social rehabilitation service is managed and funded by Social Insurance
Board.

16. • The following persons are not required to submit an application for social
rehabilitation:
i. children under the age of 16, for whom the disability has been established
for the first time. They will receive the referral to the rehabilitation service
together with a disability decision,
ii. children from 7 to 18 years of age for whom a decision including
rehabilitation service as one of its sanctions has been issued by a juvenile
committee and communicated to the Social Insurance Board,
iii. persons who have submitted to the Social Insurance Board an application
for around-the-clock special care service provided to persons with mental
disorder.

17. • An individual rehabilitation plan or plan of action prepared by a case
manager of the Social Insurance Board may include the services of:
 an occupational therapist
 a creative therapist
 a social worker
 a psychologist
 a special education
 a speech therapist
 a physiotherapist
 an experience counsellor
 a doctor
 a nurse.

18. • Social rehabilitation aims to help restore a claimant’s ability to function (and
therefore their independence) as far as practicable in everyday living activities.
Independence includes the capacity to function in:
 Communication
 domestic activities (cleaning, laundry, meal preparation and associated shopping
activities)
 Education
 Financial management
 Health care
 Hygiene care
 Mobility
 Motivation
 Safety management
 sexuality

19. • Depending on the claimant’s needs, they may be entitled to one or a
combination of eight social rehabilitation options provided under the
Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Compensation Act 2001. These
options are:
• home help
• attendant care
• child care
• equipment (aids and appliances)
• housing modifications
• transport for independence (including vehicle purchase and modifications)
• education support
• training for independence.

20. METHODS OF SOCIAL REHABILITATION
• Methods of social rehabilitation assessment has two parts:
1. A “needs assessment”, which identifies the claimant’s injury-related needs
for social rehabilitation.
2. An assessment of the social rehabilitation options available to meet those
needs. The aim is to identify options that address the claimant’s functional
limitations and help restore their independence as far as practicable.

21. Social rehabilitation assessment considers factors such as:
• the claimant’s level of independence before and after their injury
• where they live, e.g. geographical location
• the limitations they have suffered as a result of their injury
• the kinds of rehabilitation that would be appropriate to minimize those
limitations
• the long- and short-term outcomes that would be achieved by specific
rehabilitation options
• the most cost-effective rehabilitation alternatives and options
• if the claimant is entitled to vocational rehabilitation, any social
rehabilitation that may reasonably help them participate in work

22. STEP 1: IDENTIFYING THE CLAIMANT’S NEED
• Accidental Compensation Corporation (ACC) defines a need as something
the claimant is having difficulty with, or is prevented from doing, to
achieve their rehabilitation outcome.
• A need can be expressed by the claimant or their family or be observed by
an assessor or social rehabilitation provider. It can be physical, cognitive,
emotional, behavioral, social, cultural, spiritual or environmental.

23. STEP 2: DEVELOPING OPTIONS
• Having identified the claimant’s need for social rehabilitation and clarified
the rehabilitation outcome, the assessor must identify and report on all the
rehabilitation options available to meet those needs.

24. TYPES OF ASSESSMENT
• A social rehabilitation assessment consists of one, two or all of:
 A generic assessment:
• standard
• complex.
 A single discipline assessment, including physiotherapist, occupational
therapist, speech language therapist, dietician, social worker, psychologist .
 A specialised assessment.

25. GENERIC ASSESSMENT
• A generic standard assessment is for claimants who present with one or
two needs including domestic activities (including child care), health and
hygiene, mobility and transport. They usually have uncomplicated injuries
and an expected duration of recovery, but do not meet the criteria for a
Package of Care.
• A generic complex assessment is for claimants who present with many
needs. They usually have a serious injury, or multiple injuries that may be
complicated by other factors, and may or may not have an expected duration
of recovery. Complex assessments are also used for seriously injured
claimants who live in residential facilities or are receiving residential
rehabilitation

26. SPECIALISED ASSESSMENT
• Specialised assessments are for claimants who:
 Have a particular need that requires further assessment by a specially trained and skilled
person; or
 Are assessed as needing a particular option that requires further assessment by a specially
trained and skilled person (for example, a wheelchair or seating assessment).
 It includes:
• housing modifications
• equipment (excluding wheelchairs)
• wheelchair and seating
• transport for independence
• education support
• assistive technology
• nursing

27. ASSESSMENT LOCATION
• Social rehabilitation assessments usually take place in the claimant’s home,
but may also take place in a hospital or at a specialist assessor’s office

28. HOUSING MODIFICATION
• Housing modifications are alterations to a claimant’s home that:
• remove structural barriers or add fixed features
• are designed to help the claimant live as independently and safely as
possible, given the limitations imposed by their injury and space.

29. STRUCTURAL MODIFICATION
• are usually considered for longer-term needs. They alter the internal or external
structure of a house and include:
• widening doorways
• adding a wet area shower or modifying an existing area
• adding or removing walls
• expanding a room or adding a new room
• erecting a permanent external ramp, including access pathways, where
appropriate
• kitchen modifications, including alterations to bench heights and creating
wheelchair accessible facilities.

30. NON STRUCTURAL MODIFICATION
• are normally considered for needs of more than three months and include:
• adding temporary external or internal ramping and handrails
• adding simple railing and handholds plus half-steps where appropriate
• providing a step entry into a shower box
• repositioning a shower hose and attachments.

31. TRANSPORT FOR INDEPENDENCE
• Transport for independence is provided to help restore a claimant’s independence
as far as practicable, particularly in their ability to access and use transport safely.
• Transport for independence can include
• funded transport
• travelling by scheduled public transport
• travelling by taxi
• escorted travel by vehicle
• modifying a vehicle
• purchasing a vehicle
• driver license retraining for a claimant who previously had a driver license.

32. TRAINING FOR INDEPENDENCE
• Training for independence involves training and coaching claimants to
help them adapt to the impact of their injury and regain as much
independence as possible. It focuses on maximizing participation in their
home and community environments. The family and careers receive
training alongside the claimant to assist with increasing the claimant’s
independence and to provide support to the claimant to facilitate use of
skills and knowledge gained.

33. Following areas of independence :
• communication – conveying and receiving information by using skills
such as anger management, assertiveness, the ability to concentrate,
language, memory, numeracy, social awareness, social skills and speech
production and development, and communications technology
• domestic activities – cleaning, laundry, meal preparation and associated
shopping activities in relation to the claimant’s home
• educational participation
• financial management
• health care
• hygiene care

34. THANKYOU