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Who is eligible for vocational services
NVSU
provides primarily no cost vocational rehabilitation
services to persons with neurological
conditions. The majority of the people who seek services through our
program have conditions such as epilepsy, traumatic brain injury,
stroke and
multiple sclerosis. Persons with
other neurological concerns such as an aneurysm, ADHD, or
other form of brain impairment may
also apply for services. We do not charge clients for our services.
We may refer clients to the Division of Vocational
Rehabilitation (DVR) in order to attempt to obtain financial
coverage for services not provided by our program.
What to Expect
People at many career stages contact our program.
Some are well along in their career but are having trouble on
the job and are seeking
advice about new opportunities in their chosen occupation.
Other people are unsure about what occupation they should
follow, or have no recent work history.
After an applicant is accepted as a participant in our program,
one of our counselors is assigned to work with them.
The first thing that we do is to schedule several
appointments so that we can get a good understanding of what the
person needs from us. For
each person we work with, we try to develop a formal plan of action
in which we and our client agree on such issues as
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what
is the job goal? |
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what
types of services are needed? |
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how
long it should take to reach a final (or short term) goal? |
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Developing
a vocational plan involves talking with the person about career
goals, interests, and past experiences or skills.
It may also involve:
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vocational interests and assessment |
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work values clarification |
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abilities
assessment or academic evaluation |
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personality assessment |
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clarifying
functional abilities |
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job
tryouts. |
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We
take into account a person's interests, abilities, job needs or
values, occupational goals, and how quickly he or she wants to go to work.
Sometimes a vocational plan involves seeking employment with
the skills and abilities the person already has.
Sometimes it may involve short-term training and longer
training or educational efforts. In order to help fund these
activities, we also refer our clients to the Washington state
Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR). Once a job goal is
established, and the plan is agreed upon, other vocational services
can be pursued.
What about people who
cannot to work full-time?
Not everyone with whom we work can be employed full-time.
Many persons with significant neurological conditions cannot
risk losing retirement or disability pensions if they work
on a full-time basis. A
recipient of Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) can earn $900
per month as of January 2007. We
are happy to work with people to develop part-time or casual
employment as well as full-time employment.
We help people coordinate wages so that they can supplement
subsidy or retirement benefits without jeopardizing
them.
Vocational Services Available
Vocational
counseling involves using test results, medical information, and
other relevant information about a person in order to help them
identify, obtain, and maintain appropriate employment. Our staff
works with people to help clarify job ideas, and to strategize on how to obtain appropriate employment. Vocational counseling can also be useful for people who
currently hold jobs but are dissatisfied with their employment, or
are having trouble with assigned job duties. Program participants
may also be referred for informational interviews and contacts with
established community employers.
Vocational
assessment, interest and values evaluation
does
not necessarily tell what kinds of jobs a person will be good at,
but rather what types of jobs best fit their lifestyle,
personalities, and interests. Vocational
aptitude testing and abilities testing are also available through
our program. Unlike
interest testing, vocational aptitude and abilities testing can be
useful in suggesting which kinds of jobs a person may be able to
perform more adequately.
Because
many people who come to our program have experienced brain injury,
we also help people to obtain neuropsychological testing.
Neuropsychological tests are non medical tests which measure
important areas of brain functioning, such as memory, problem
solving, "multi tasking", intellectual functioning, and
other areas of brain functioning important to employment. Neuropsychological testing, vocational interest testing, and
aptitude and abilities testing are all helpful in vocational planning.
Job site accommodation consultation is
provided for both clients or employers who need assistance in
determining whether a procedural change, work site modification, or
assistive equipment would result in a client with a neurological
condition being able to do the essential functions of the job.
Job
seeking skills can
be developed and improved through twice weekly Job Club,
a group oriented vocational activity which helps prepare
people for employment interviews and aids them in the job search
process. Activities in Job Club include lectures on resume building,
interview techniques, efficient strategies for finding appropriate
employment, etc.. Periodically,
we invite local employers to address Job Club members on up-to-date
vocational topics. Other
activities in Job Club may include practice interviews on video,
presentations on how to disclose medical conditions to employers,
legal rights of job applicants with medical concerns, The Americans
with Disabilities Act (ADA), job search organization, developing
your own approach to a job search. Job
Club also serves as a morale builder and motivator.
Looking for employment on your own can be discouraging.
Because everyone in Job Club is actively involved in the job
seeking process, it tends to provide people with a feeling of group
support. Clients of our
program frequently report that Job Club is one of the most useful
services they receive from us.
Because Job Club is geared toward finding employment as
quickly as possible, all Job Club members must have met with one of
our counselors and have decided on a specific vocational goal.
Other
services to develop job seeking skills include help using our program's computers in order to
identify open jobs through the Internet web
sites, using program
equipment to develop and store resumes and cover letters, and help
with conducting mass mailing campaigns to employers. This last strategy involves identifying a large number of
potential employers, and "advertising" oneself by sending
resumes and cover letters to them. As part of our interview
training program, we videotaped practice job interviews
so that job
applicants can see for themselves how they present in an interview
situation. Effective employment
resumes and good cover letters are more
and more important in the modern job market. We have more than
thirty years' experience helping
people develop clear, concise employment resumes and cover letters.
We also help our clients fill out job applications, and give advice
on how to best respond to issues such as a lack of recent employment
history, medical conditions, functional limitations, and other
concerns that they may have.
Job
Development is the process of finding employment.
Job development may involve traditional means such as looking
through want ads or reviewing the job openings which employers mail
to our job bank. It can
also involve using our program's computers to search for employment
on the Web. Job
development also can involve more active activities, such as calling
employers on the telephone for interviews, or participating in
informational interviews with employers in order to develop new
contacts. One powerful
and active job development strategy involves targeted mailings of
resumes with cover letters to selected employers.
This generally involves selecting 25 or more possible
employers, developing an appropriate cover letter, and mailing a
resume to them. Our
program helps coordinate this activity, and provides free mailing
services.
Home Based Work may
be the best option for people who have medical conditions which make
it very difficult to commute. While home-based employment or
"telecommuting" may be a major employment pattern in the
future, home-based jobs today are frequently difficult to find.
Many of the home-based jobs that do exist in the market are given to
persons who have first worked successfully in office situations, and
then "graduated" to telecommuting jobs.
Nevertheless, we do attempt to help people find home-based
employment. To date, most of these situations are
computer/telephone related jobs which involve contacting companies
in order to do market research. They typically paid a minimum
wage between $12
and $13 an hour, and generally offer between 10 and 25 hours
employment per week. People generally see these jobs as useful
for supplementing SSI/DI or other stipends.
Job placement is available to
persons with a specific job goal through our program.
We tailor our program to individual
peoples' needs. For instance, some people who come to us already
have jobs, but need some type of assistance in keeping a job.
Sometimes this involves helping an employer develop accommodations
for specific problems people have (such as making sure people with
seizure conditions don't have to work rotating shifts, or helping
people who have memory concerns organize work schedules). Some
people only want to work part-time, so they can keep Social Security
benefits or disability payments. When appropriate, we help people
plan work budgets so that they can participate in part-time
employment without jeopardizing their main source of income. When
you see a counselor at our program, be sure to tell that person if
you have any special needs which might require other vocational
services than those listed here. As with all our services, job
placement services is free to all clients, and is either funded
through available grant monies, or in cooperation with the state
rehabilitation agency.
Job tryout/community based assessments are
geared to establishing a client's functional abilities,
work behaviors and interpersonal skills. They are tailored to the
specific interests of the client, with twice monthly evaluation.
These tryouts are generally non-paid and involve approximately 12
weeks of exploration, assessment and skill training. An
emphasis is on establishing these in the private sector, giving the
1993 US Department of Labor Waiver for "tryouts" for
people with disabilities. If during the tryout, the potential
employer is not able to cover industrial insurance, our supporting
non-profit board, NVS, will fund the L&I industrial insurance for
NVSU clients.
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