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About vocational rehabilitation services
The goals of vocational rehabilitation focus on assisting disabled workers to return to work, either with their injury employer or with a new employer.
These goals are met through counselling, vocational assessment and planning, work assessment, work site/job modification, skill development, and return to employment services.
Successful vocational rehabilitation requires that workers be motivated to take an active interest and initiative in their own rehabilitation. Vocational rehabilitation programs are based on the committment and determination of workers to re-establish themselves.
Vocational rehabilitation consultants
A vocational rehabilitation consultant assesses a worker's needs and appropriate levels of rehabilitation assistance; however, it is ultimately the responsibility of workers to decide their own vocational future.
The consultant works with the worker to develop a vocational plan, which could include:
- A work assessment
- Work site and job modification
- Job search assistance
- Training-on-the-job
- Skill upgrading
- Formal training
Where a worker is suffering from a compensable injury or disease along with some other impediment to return to work, for instance substance abuse, rehabilitation assistance may be provided to address both. However, the primary obstacle to return to work must be compensable.
Preventative rehabilitation is available as assistance to workers who can return to their old jobs, but are medically at risk of permanent disability due to vulnerability.
Workers Compensation Act, Section 16
The authority to provide vocational rehabilitation services is found in Section 16 of the Workers Compensation Act. Section 16 states:
1. "To aid in getting injured workers back to work or to assist in lessening or removing a resulting handicap, the Board may take the measures and make the expenditures from the accident fund that it considers necessary or expedient, regardless of the date on which the worker first became entitled to compensation."
2. "Where compensation is payable under this Part as the result of the death of a worker, the Board may make provisions and expenditures for the training or retraining of a surviving dependent spouse, regardless of the date of death."
3. "The Board may, where it considers it advisable, provide counselling and placement services to dependants."
Under Section 16 of the Act, vocational rehabilitation consultants may assist workers with disabilities in their efforts to return to work following an injury or the onset of an occupational disease. In the case of more severe injuries, the consultant also provides assistance to minimize the effects of the injury or disease. The gravity of the injury and residual disability is a relevant factor in determining the nature and extent of vocational rehabilitation assistance. More serious disabilities warrant greater vocational rehabilitation assistance. Vocational rehabilitation services should be provided in a cost-effective manner.