Have you noticed these 3 things missing from a lot of vocational services?
BY PURPLE CO
Have you noticed that there are a couple of rather significant gaps in vocational services for people funded through LTCSA?
In my 30 years of experience as a Rehabilitation Counsellor, I have seen a lack of services to deal with some of the biggest needs of participants.
- Work trial placements
- Job brokerage
- On the job coaching
In the past, we at Purple Co have tried to use a range of Disability Employment Service ( DES) providers, with variable and often lackluster success to assist with the work trial placement & job brokerage part of the equation. Our previous attempts at job brokerage have been yielded variable and often lackluster results.
While case managers, coordinators and vocational rehabilitation counsellors have been working hard to help our clients become job ready, we at Purple Co feel frustrated and our clients become demotivated when they see such little progress toward a job placement being made.
In the process of finding DES employees, educating them about LTCSA, and holding them accountable for what we need them to do, we find that many leave their employer and we have to start from scratch.
Instead of our clients finding a job or work trial placement, they are left on this merry go round of educating people about their needs.
We will always work with clients to help them be independent in their job search, even if they don't need job brokerage. Some people, however, may require assistance in finding a placement. We all know this.
Having supervised Rehabilitation Counsellors for years, I know this placement & job brokerage part of their work is often neglected or ignored.
Does this sound familiar to you?
Participants who are engaged and motivated are forced to wait, and this is what leads many to give up on productive, meaningful work.
This is not OK.
I mean no disrespect to other service providers. We are all working in an environment where we are asked to do more with less.
And finding client’s a work trial placement or a job takes time, and time is money.
And as lovely as this idea might be, we don't have a bucket of job vacancies lying around just waiting for a client to be ready to be slotted into one.
No one is to blame, it’s just the system we find ourselves in.
It has always been a strong part of service provision here at Purple Co to use Work Trial effectively. I know these are incredibly fruitful, whey they are executed effectively and when the participant is engaged throughout the whole process, and not put into a “ holding '' wait and see pattern.
We as a team use all of our connections, our strengths and our skills to find the placements our clients need when they need them. It's not 1 person's responsibility to find their client a placement. It becomes a collaborative project and one that I love being a part of.
We also ensure that our client’s remain engaged in the process, so that they are not left waiting for something to happen, they know what’s happening and are a part of the happening. This is where we help them to use the skills they have been learning during their rehabilitation such as their fatigue management skills and resilience activation skills so that we are using this waiting for a placement time in a meaningful and engaged way.
I can't promise you that we will find a work trial placement or a job, in a matter of a week, but I can assure you that even in the placement seeking part we will continue to engage clients and ensure that they remain active participants in their own rehabilitation.
Is there someone you know of that could use this approach to their vocational rehabilitation? If so, please don’t hesitate to reach out - I’m more than happy to have a chat.
Jo
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