Your Rich VR Heritage Brief #14 Getting Up to Speed as a VR Counselor Trainee in 1966

Happy Carolina Friday, Team!
 
For this edition of the VR Heritage tour, we rifled through some of the documents in the “VR Vault” and found something that we felt would be of interest to you—a 20 page document entitled “Orientation Program for Rehabilitation Counselors.”   Dated December, 1966. This particular copy belonged to Fred Hughes, who was assistant regional director in the western region when he retired approximately 1999.
 
Some interesting notations from our review:

• “The growing emphasis on improving the quality of vocational rehabilitation services is bringing into sharp focus the basic importance of staff development.  In the final analysis, no rehabilitation program is better than its staff.  Therefore, to improve services it is necessary to improve and develop the competency of the counselors.”
• “Experience may be the best teacher but even better is experience under the supervision of an experienced counselor.”
• Reading Assignment first two weeks:
• Counselor’s manual  (3/4” thick) ; State Plan; acquaintance with the Federal Manual  (3” thick)
  

Federal Manual caretaken by Directors Charles Warren, Robert Lassiter, and Claude Myer circa 1947-1971

• “Counselors must be taught that their hours of work are different from the clerical staff; they are professional people and they have a job to do regardless of the hours….And he should not return until his work is completed.”
• One of the holidays (May 10) was Confederate Memorial Day
• Annual leave:  1.25 days/month or 15 days/year.  No more than 30 days can accumulate.
• Petty leave: 14 hours/year
• Sick leave: 10 days/year no limit to the amount of accumulation
• Comp time—time for time if asked to work on day off or overtime
• Educational leave:   15 days leave with pay max for professional or graduate study not to exceed 5 such leaves over an eight year period.   No travel or subsistence.
• National Rehab Association:  “Counselors are urged to join the National Rehabilitation Association.  This is the professional organization of the agency and all counselors should be members.  Membership is required to attend State, Regional, and National meetings.  Membership fee 1966: $10/year  $200/life membership.
• Master’s degrees:  “Counselors who do not have Masters’ Degrees should start working on that soon after employment.  In the near future, a Master’s Degree may be a prerequisite for the rehabilitation counselor.”  A person could complete all the requirements for a “Master’s Degree in four years by taking a three-hour course each semester and six hours in summer school.”
• Twelve Weeks Orientation: Soon after employment, the trainee will be assigned to a university training center for a formal six-week orientation course.  Graduate level and six or more semester credit hours may be earned.  Counselors with Master’s degrees were exempt.  Woodrow Wilson Rehab Center, Fishersville, VA was one of the training centers.  Attended for six weeks.
• Counselors working with “mentally handicapped” (now known as individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities) attended an additional six weeks of training at UNC.  Two weeks in training, two weeks in the office.  
• Following the successful completion of 12 weeks of the training course, an incremental pay increase was received.  “By this time, a trainee should definitely know whether he intends to make rehabilitation his profession.  He will represent a considerable investment on the part of the State and Federal governments.  Should he be uncertain about his future, he should drop out before too much has been invested.  The supervisor also should know by this time if this is the type of person who will make a good rehabilitation counselor.”
• On the Job Training List:
  • Completion of all forms: Interview, Plan, Reports to State Office.
  • Case finding: “Referral agencies such as Welfare Department, Health Department, hospitals, doctors, schools, Industrial Commission, BOASI, etc.”
  • Follow up of all clients receiving services with recommended follow up intervals (not listed here)
  • Field work—[ looks like the expectation was to get out and beat the street and visit make calls to clients outside of the office]
    • Itinerary well planned
    • Clients and agencies notified in advance
    • Territory to be covered regularly and often
    • Referral agencies contacted by personal visit frequently
    • Training agencies visited frequently
    • Field books carried on all trips
    • Study caseload every week to determine what cases need contact
    • Study history of case before visit
    • Carry supply of all forms, tests, and other needed materials
    • Prompt contact of all referral cases
    • Make report to referral source
  • Case Recording
    • Keep brief record of all contacts with client on the “R-4” in the field books and later recorded in more detail in the folder
    • Make all records neat and readable
    • Monthly marking on the master list of current status of client
    • Complete contact reports in case folder showing services rendered and progress of the case
    • Prompt reply to all correspondence and memoranda.
  • General Casework (condensed)
    • All forms completed in full
    • Complete medical and vocational diagnosis of each client before making plan
    • Adequate psych test scores on all clients when training is planned
    • Each client treated in every instance as a very important person
    • Case records completed daily so that anyone else could resume services if something happened to you
    • Genuine interest in problems of the client
    • Frequent follow up of all clients receiving services—three months interval between contacts is absolute maximum of time
    • Visit home of client early in planning stage
    • Use medical consultant for problem cases
    • Follow through on recommendations of the specialist
    • “From the first interview, establish rapport with the client; encourage and inspire, but do not promise too much too quickly.  Let the client know you will help him to do that which he is capable and anxious to do.  Let him know that is his plan, his rehabilitation, and that you are there to help him become self-supporting.”
    • Do not close case before rehabilitation is assured
    • Provide only those services which client or someone else cannot furnish
    • Be conservative in expenditures in or to provide maximum service to the greatest number of clients.  Giving one person too much may hinder his rehabilitation.
    • Any delay in providing service to client should be explained to him.
• “All work must be approved by “district” supervisor during the first year of probation.”
• “Usually a rehab counselor need to do much traveling to effectively carry out the duties of his position.  He cannot effectively do vocational rehabilitation in his office.  He needs to be accessible to the clients.  If his territory is 20 miles or more from his office, he will need to arrange temporary office space within that territory.  He should be in that office at a regularly scheduled time and as often as his service is needed.  A counselor should plan to spend at least half of his time “in the field.”
• “Whatever the specific duty of the rehabilitation counselor, they all have the one duty in common to perform—to help the clients to become gainfully employed and to do that, there must be a close relationship between the counselor and the client on a one-to-one level.  Vocational rehabilitation of [individuals with disabilities] cannot effectively be done in mass production.”
• “There is no limit to the good a counselor can do if he does not care who gets the credit.”
• The probationary period is usually one year; however, the period may be extended when there is some question about a counselor’s readiness to become a permanent employee.”
• Basic Concepts of Vocational Rehabilitation: “We hold these truths to be self-evident:”
  • Our clients are individuals with problems, and the dignity of each person is to be respected
  • Each person has equal opportunity with another regardless of race, color, creed, national origin, material wealth, education, or social background.
  • Every person has a right to try to work, and that any disability that he may have should not prevent his trying
  • Society should provide an environment which will allow an individual with a disability to develop their maximum capacity in their preparation for work
  • NC DVRS exists only for the benefit of the client, and that all agency activities are geared to promote his gainful employment.
  • Vocational rehabilitation should be so designed as to prevent dependency wherever possible.
  • VR services promote the common welfare and, therefore, rehabilitation of individuals with disabilities becomes a community responsibility.  Liaising with other agencies and disciplines interested in promoting the common welfare becomes standard policy.
  • Costs, numbers, production, and impressions are secondary to helping an individual become employed
  • Staff should strive to grow professionally and neve become static in their accomplishments; that they should always seek better ways to rehabilitation more people.
  • All records pertaining to a client are strictly confidential
  • The counselor’s job is never done until his client is placed in suitable employment (or has achieve their independent living goals)
  • That all people should work to the limit of their ability.
  • That tax consumers should, if at all possible, be made taxpayers, and that attempts should be made to rehabilitate many of the thousands now in institutions or are at home unemployed.
  • That it pays to employ individuals with disabilities!
     
    End of document  (reduced from 20 pages to 4 to help you gain the morsels efficiently in the spirit of this document!)

 
In honor of the excellent work and passion that our Specialist for Transition Services Stephanie Hanes is demonstrating to take the NC DVRS Transition Services to new heights, our final submission for this edition is to share an article from the September-October 1966 edition of REACH touting the NC DVRS Transition Program and partnership with NC Department of Public Instruction that existed even then.

Once again, we hope you have gained additional perspective and respect for those who served our fellow North Carolinians before us and left us timeless pragmatic wisdom that largely still applies to our business.  Let’s see just how much we can accomplish together to give those that follow us something to remember us by as we successfully temper and apply these timeless principles to this new era of rehabilitation with all of the additional tools and resources available to us!
 
Warm regards,

Phil