	Vocational Rehabilitation Services Skill Development Training; Vocational Evaluation; Work adjustment; Job Development and Placement; Supported Employment; and Work Services

Introduction

Administration and Management

Service Delivery Administration Standards

Service Standards

VOC 14: Personnel

Program personnel have the education, training, experience, and skills needed to help individuals achieve their vocational goals.

VOC 14.01

Employee workloads support the achievement of client outcomes, are regularly reviewed, and are based on an assessment of the following:

the qualifications, competencies, and experience of the worker, including level of supervision needed;
the work and time required to accomplish assigned tasks and job responsibilities; and
service volume, accounting for assessed level of needs of new and current clients.

VOC 14.02

Direct service personnel have the appropriate combination of formal education, pre-service training, and supervisied experience to provide effective vocational placments and support services.

VOC 14.03

Direct service personnel demonstrate competency in, or receive pre-service training on:

ensuring consumer health and safety;
special needs of the identified service population;
psychiatric rehabilitation issues;
crisis intervention;
the use, management, and side effects of psychotropic medications;
mental health and substance use conditions; and
relapse prevention.

VOC 14.04

Supervisors are qualified by:

an advanced degree in social work or a comparable human service field from an accredited institution;
an advanced degree from a program in vocational rehabilitation or vocational counseling;
a bachelor’s degree in a human service field and two years experience in the vocational rehabilitation field; and/or
national or state certification, licensing, or registration requirements in the vocational rehabilitation field.

VOC 14.05

A supervisor is available to provide case consultation at all times services are provided.

QUICK JUMP TO


	PURPOSE: Individuals with disabilities who receive vocational rehabilitation services achieve increased community integration, social inclusion, and self-determination through the realization of their vocational goals.

RELATED FILES


	SERVICE One or more organization-operated programs or activities that have a common general objective and deploy the organization's material and human resources in a planned and systematic manner. An organization that publicly promotes or identifies itself in writing as offering a service, is licensed to deliver a service, assigns personnel and/or space to a service, or allocates financial resources to a service is considered to offer that service.


	COMMUNITY A specific group of people living in the same locality and who may share a common culture, values, and norms. Communities can also be defined by race, religion, ethnicity, age, occupation, political status, tribal affiliation, interest in particular problems or outcomes, or other common bonds. The term "community" encompasses worksites, schools, tribes, residential neighborhoods, business districts, recreational areas, and health and human service sites.


	PROGRAM PERSONNEL All direct service and administrators or supervisors of direct services that are involved in the operation of the organization's social service programs. "Program personnel" does not include MIS, accounting, facilities, clerical, or other staff that are not involved in the provision or oversight of direct services.


	TRAINING Instruction so as to make fit, qualified, or proficient in a skill or body of knowledge.


	EMPLOYEE Paid member of an organization. Foster parents are not considered employees and are specifically referenced in relevant standards.


	WORKLOAD The amount of work assigned to or expected from a person within a specified period of time. See also CASELOAD.


	ASSESSMENT An evaluation, which utilizes professional expertise and skills in the collection and analysis of data to understand and describe the nature of service needs of an individual, family, or group. Assessment, as in needs assessment, is also used to determine priorities of program planning and service development for the organization as a whole. See also DIAGNOSIS.


	SUPERVISION Assumption of responsibility for directly overseeing and evaluating the work or work products of personnel within an organization. Also includes inspecting the act or process of accomplishing a function or activity.


	PERSONNEL The body of employees and/or volunteers that carries out the organization's tasks under the organization's administration and/or supervision. This definition does not include foster parents who are specifically referenced in relevant standards


	CONSUMER The individual, family, group, or community that seeks or receives services.


	CLIENT See service recipient.


	SPECIAL NEEDS A designation used in reference to conditions or characteristics of a person that reflect a need for special care, services, or treatment. When the term is used in the context of adoption services, special needs refers to conditions that make a child harder to place for adoption. This includes children who are members of sibling groups, older children, children with disabilities, children of certain racial /ethnic backgrounds, etc. When the term is used in the context of foster care it refers to the need for a higher degree of specialized case services and attention due to mental and physical disabilities. When the term is used in the context of out-of-school time services, a child or youth may have special physical, behavioral, medical, emotional, or cognitive needs that should be addressed or accommodated. The term is also used in other contexts. See also DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES.


	CRISIS INTERVENTION The immediate response to the acute needs of a person in crisis including referral to appropriate community resources, advocacy, support, or direct assistance.


	MANAGEMENT See ADMINISTRATION


	SERVICE POPULATION A group or target population that the organization's services are designed to serve in accord with its mission, and which includes the organization's service recipients. An organization's service population may be defined by geographic location, specific problems or needs, religion, ethnicity, culture, or other factors.


	PSYCHOTROPIC MEDICATION Medications used by psychiatrists and other physicians to help people achieve psychological or emotional changes, including reduction in depression, anxiety, and other manifestations of mental or emotional disturbance.


	PREVENTION Actions taken to minimize and/or eliminate social, psychological, or other conditions. Prevention can occur at the individual, group, community, and societal levels and enhances opportunities to achieve positive fulfillment.


	ADVANCED DEGREE A degree at the Master's level or beyond from an institution of higher education. An advanced degree does not include a Bachelor's degree, an associate's degree, or an educational certificate.


	SOCIAL WORK Professionally responsible interventions carried out by persons with formal, professional education at the BSW or MSW level from an accredited school of social work and appropriate licensing, certification, and registration credentials. Interventions are directed toward improving the transactions between people and environments to enhance the adaptive capacities of the participants and improve environments for all that function within them. Social work is a professional practice with a consumer group consisting of individuals, families, small groups, organizations, neighborhoods, and communities and involving the disciplined application of knowledge and skill.


	PROGRAM A system of services offered by an organization. For example, an organization providing a mental health service may offer several mental health programs to different populations, e.g., a mental health program for adolescent teens. The word "program" can be used interchangeably with the word "service" or to describe specific programs.


	CERTIFICATION Assurance from a state or professional association that a person or organization possesses certain attributes, knowledge, or skills.


	CASE A general term used to designate clients (including individuals, families, and groups) served by an organization for purposes of monitoring the provision of services. A foster care case is generally based on the placement of an individual child, although casework for the child may include services to the child's family. A child protective services case is based on an entire family household if a family assessment model is used; otherwise a case is defined as a child.