Rehabilitation Counselor

About This Role

This role is for a Rehabilitation Counselor within the Salisbury VA Vocational Rehabilitation Service, which offers recovery-oriented clinical vocational rehabilitation services. The position involves providing a range of professional rehabilitation counseling services, including personal adjustment counseling, therapeutic rehabilitation interventions, and case coordination, to help Veterans with severe disabilities achieve employment, educational, and independent living goals.

Responsibilities

• Provide a variety of professional rehabilitation counseling services such as personal adjustment counseling, therapeutic rehabilitation interventions, and case coordination services, utilizing evidence-informed and evidence-based modalities and professional counseling practices to aid Veterans with severe disabilities in achieving competitive employment and educational and independent living goals
• Conduct biopsychosocial assessments using medical records, pertinent disability documentation, observation, and interviews with Veterans and their support systems to generate personal, vocational, and educational histories
• Consult with interdisciplinary teams to enhance coordination of care, ensure medical clearance, and provide for optimal timing of further interventions
• Determine clinical need for and capacity to benefit from therapeutic and rehabilitation services to include work restoration/resilience treatment, transitional work placement and/or competitive employment, assistive technology, financial benefits counseling, and potential benefits protections
• Develop patient-centered treatment plans utilizing Specific, Measurable, Agreed upon, Realistic, and Time-based (SMART) goals and provide ongoing assessment of Veteran's progress
• Assist with transitional work agreements from community, state, and federal agencies
• Devise solutions to reduce and/or eliminate barriers and meet Veterans' placement needs which may require substantial modification to environmental or functional demands within a work setting
• Provide psycho educational and/or psychotherapeutic groups to facilitate effective job search skills, employer-desired soft skills, work and life skills fostering independence and recovery
• Provide job development, customized employment, job carving, job coaching, job accommodation, advocacy, and adaptation services to both Veterans with severe disabilities and to educate and support employers
• Provide disability education and program-specific training to staff and stakeholders
• Use rehabilitation counseling theory, medical and psychiatric terminology, and symptomology and signs of suicidal and homicidal ideations to provide effective services
• Select, administer, and interpret vocational instruments to evaluate abilities, aptitudes, interests, values, preferences, transferable skills, and overall work resilience