Rehabilitation Counselor Roles and Functions and Sources of Role Strain

Abstract

A national random sample of (a) 160 rehabilitation counselors; (b) 83 rehabilitation managers, administrators, and supervisors; and, (c) 23 rehabilitation educators, responded to three scales on each of the 40 items on the Abbreviated Rehabilitation Counselor Task Inventory. Data were analyzed on each item as well as by 11 Job Task Categories: (a) Placement; (b) Affective Counseling; (c) Group Procedures; (d) Vocational Counseling; (e) Medical Referral; (f) Eligibility-Case Finding; (g) Test Administration; (h) Test Interpretation; (i) Case Services Coordination; (j) Intervention with Client's Family; and, (k) Miscellaneous. Results and their implications were reported for: (l) rehabilitation counselor roles and functions; (2) rehabilitation counselor time sufficiency and desire for role and function change; (3) sources of role strain; (4) indices of rehabilitation counselor burnout; and, (5) changes in rehabilitation counselor role and functions since the mid 196Os.

Essential Knowledge Domains Underlying Effective Rehabilitation Counseling Practice

“…Each successive replication and extension of this line of inquiry has added to the evidencebased (DePalma, 2002) foundation of underlying knowledge dimensions essential for rehabilitation counseling practice. These studies and prior research efforts (e.g., Berven, 1979;Emener & Rubin, 1980;Harrison & Lee, 1979;Jaques, 1959;Leahy et al, 1987;Muthard & Salamone, 1969;Rubin et al, 1984;Wright & Fraser, 1975) have provided the discipline with consistent empirically based evidence of an established and mature profession that is able to respond appropriately to the evolutionary demands and pressures of a dynamic human service field.…”

“…In the earlier years of the discipline, studies like these were used by the regulatory bodies to help inform standards developed in the areas of academic program accreditation and practitioner certification (e.g., Berven, 1979;Emener & Rubin, 1980;Harrison & Lee, 1979;Jaques, 1959;Leahy, Shapson, & Wright, 1987;Muthard & Salamone, 1969;Rubin et al, 1984;Wright & Fraser, 1975). In more recent years, the explicit connection and knowledge translation between empirical research and standard setting by the discipline's regulatory bodies has significantly evolved.…”

Professionalization, Deprofessionalization, and Reprofessionalization of Rehabilitation Counseling According to Criteria of Professions

“…The body of knowledge related to rehabilitation practice that is transmitted through rehabilitation journals is highly refined on practice-relevant issues. For example, rehabilitation counseling has a number of role and function studies (e.g., Emener & Rubin, 1980;Matkin, 1983b;Rubin, Matkin, Ashley, Beardsley, May, Onstott, & Puckett, 1984) that delimit the tasks performed by counselors in the daily performance of duties. The largest proportion of respondents in the role and function studies has been composed of counselors.…”

Redefining the scope of responsibilities and resources for rehabilitation counselors

“…More likely, however, the role strain is due to a fundamental flaw in the occupational socialization many rehabilitation counselors get. The flaw is ultimately reflected in narrowly person-focused and relatively system-insensitive interventions on the part of rehabilitation practitioners that contribute to the profession's increasing problem of 'burnout' (Edelwich, 1980;Emener and Rubin, 1980). Specifically, the misconception stems from the view that rehabilitation counseling is primarily a psychotherapeutic process between a trained professional and a disabled or disadvantaged client.…”