A vocational rehabilitation intervention for young adults with physical disabilities: participants' perception of beneficial attributes

Abstract

The findings suggest that programs supporting work participation should be designed to provide challenging, real-world experiential opportunities that provide young adults with physical disabilities with new insights, self-efficacy and life skills. Also, such programs should facilitate context centered learning. Former intervention participants, therefore, evaluated job-interview training, sharing learning and social experiences with peers, job placement, arrangement of adjusted work conditions and education as beneficial attributes of the 'At Work' program. In addition, they recommended, to incorporate more training on assertiveness and disclosure. We advise professionals to include these beneficial attributes in similar interventions in other contexts.

Entering the labor market: increased employment rates of young adults with chronic physical conditions after a vocational rehabilitation program

“…The intervention aims to improve young adults' life skills and to provide support for their vocational participation [32,33]. A detailed overview of the content of the intervention is presented elsewhere [30].…”

“…Group sessions entail peer-support, modelling, experimental learning and education. These intervention elements are evaluated as useful and appropriate to improve young adults' life skills and to provide support for their vocational participation [24,25,[28][29][30]. Topics that are discussed during the group meetings consider work and health, interests and capacities, social benefits and insurances, searching for vacancies and performing a job-interview.…”

“…The intervention includes a combination of group education, peer-mentorship, individual jobcoaching based on the supported employment methodology, and experimental learning. These intervention elements are evaluated as useful and appropriate to improve psychosocial development and vocational participation among young people with chronic conditions [24,25,[28][29][30][31]. Studies on existing programs that address the development of life skills in general or provide support in finding temporary jobs during education, showed some positive preliminary results [25][26][27][28][29].…”

Barriers and facilitators to employment as reported by people with physical disabilities: An across disability type analysis

“…Individuals with physical disabilities, such as cerebral palsy (CP), multiple sclerosis (MS), and spinal cord injury (SCI), face major challenges with obtaining and maintaining employment (Achterberg, Wind, De Boer, & Frings-Dresen, 2009;Bal et al, 2016;Lindsay, 2011;Van Mechelen, Verhoef, Van Asbeck, & Post, 2008;Lindsay, 2011). Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) through the federal and state vocational rehabilitation programs is one option for obtaining the needed services that lead to successful competitive employment outcomes for individuals with physical disabilities.…”

Social participation and health-related quality of life in adolescents with chronic musculoskeletal pain or chronic fatigue

“…Since these young adults have more work absenteeism, it is recommended to pay extra attention to future work abilities during treatment in adolescence. A possibility could be to refer these adolescents in an early phase to a comparable program as the outpatient transition treatment program 'At work', which supports work participation amongst young adults with chronic physical disabilities, 54 but the effectiveness still has to be proven.…”