Rehabilitation Counselor Counsel individuals to maximize the independence and employability of persons coping with personal, social, and vocational difficulties that result from birth defects, illness, disease, accidents, aging, or the stress of daily life. Coordinate activities for residents of care and treatment facilities. Assess client needs and design and implement rehabilitation programs that may include personal and vocational counseling, training, and job placement.
Rehabilitation Counselor is Also Know as
In different settings, Rehabilitation Counselor is titled as
- Employment Advisor
- Employment Services Case Manager
- Employment Specialist
- Human Services Care Specialist
- Job Coach
- Rehabilitation Counselor
- Rehabilitation Specialist
- Vocational Case Manager
- Vocational Placement Specialist
- Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor (VRC)
Education and Training of Rehabilitation Counselor
Rehabilitation Counselor is categorized in Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Rehabilitation Counselor
A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.
Education Required for Rehabilitation Counselor
Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
Degrees Related to Rehabilitation Counselor
- Bachelor in Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling/Counselor
- Associate Degree Courses in Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling/Counselor
- Masters Degree Courses in Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling/Counselor
- Bachelor in Assistive/Augmentative Technology and Rehabilitati
- Associate Degree Courses in Assistive/Augmentative Technology and Rehabilitati
- Masters Degree Courses in Assistive/Augmentative Technology and Rehabilitati
- Bachelor in Rehabilitation Science
- Associate Degree Courses in Rehabilitation Science
- Masters Degree Courses in Rehabilitation Science
Training Required for Rehabilitation Counselor
Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Rehabilitation Counselor in different industries are
- Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers
- Mental Health Counselors
- Healthcare Social Workers
- Child, Family, and School Social Workers
- Occupational Therapy Aides
- Psychiatric Technicians
- Occupational Therapists
- Social and Community Service Managers
- Recreational Therapists
- Clinical and Counseling Psychologists
- Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors
- Marriage and Family Therapists
- Social and Human Service Assistants
- Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselors
- Community Health Workers
- Health Education Specialists
- Occupational Therapy Assistants
- Clinical Neuropsychologists
- Psychiatric Aides
- Low Vision Therapists, Orientation and Mobility Specialists, and Vision Rehabilitation Therapists
What Do Rehabilitation Counselor do?
- Monitor and record clients' progress to ensure that goals and objectives are met.
- Confer with clients to discuss their options and goals so that rehabilitation programs and plans for accessing needed services can be developed.
- Prepare and maintain records and case files, including documentation, such as clients' personal and eligibility information, services provided, narratives of client contacts, or relevant correspondence.
- Arrange for physical, mental, academic, vocational, and other evaluations to obtain information for assessing clients' needs and developing rehabilitation plans.
- Analyze information from interviews, educational and medical records, consultation with other professionals, and diagnostic evaluations to assess clients' abilities, needs, and eligibility for services.
- Develop rehabilitation plans that fit clients' aptitudes, education levels, physical abilities, and career goals.
- Maintain close contact with clients during job training and placements to resolve problems and evaluate placement adequacy.
- Develop and maintain relationships with community referral sources, such as schools or community groups.
- Locate barriers to client employment, such as inaccessible work sites, inflexible schedules, or transportation problems, and work with clients to develop strategies for overcoming these barriers.
- Arrange for on-site job coaching or assistive devices, such as specially equipped wheelchairs, to help clients adapt to work or school environments.
- Confer with physicians, psychologists, occupational therapists, and other professionals to develop and implement client rehabilitation programs.
- Develop diagnostic procedures to determine clients' needs.
- Participate in job development and placement programs, contacting prospective employers, placing clients in jobs, and evaluating the success of placements.
- Collaborate with clients' families to implement rehabilitation plans, such as behavioral, residential, social, or employment goals.
- Collaborate with community agencies to establish facilities and programs for persons with disabilities.
- Manage budgets and direct case service allocations, authorizing expenditures and payments.
- Supervise rehabilitation counselors and staff.
Qualities of Good Rehabilitation Counselor
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Tools Used by Rehabilitation Counselor
- Alternative computer keyboards
- Alternative mouse options
- Desktop computers
- Global positioning system GPS receivers
- Handheld calculators
- Intercom systems
- Laser facsimile machines
- Laser pointers
- Laser printers
- Liquid crystal display LCD projectors
- Multi-line telephone systems
- Notebook computers
- Personal computers
- Photocopiers
- Scanners
- Smartphones
- Tablet computers
- Voice output communication aids
- Voice over internet protocol VoIP systems
Technology Skills required for Rehabilitation Counselor
- Adobe Acrobat Reader
- Budgeting software
- Chart Links
- Client information database software
- Data input software
- Electronic medical record EMR software
- Email software
- Encryption software
- Fanatic Software Informant
- Global positioning system GPS software
- Microsoft ActiveSync
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Internet Explorer
- Microsoft Mobile Explorer MME
- Microsoft Office Mobile
- Microsoft Office Outlook
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Word
- Netscape Navigator
- Scheduling software
- SkillTRAN Job Browser Pro
- SkillTRAN OASYS
- Spreadsheet software
- Test interpretation software
- Virus protection software
- Voice recognition software
- Web browser software
- Word processing software
- Word recognition software