Vocational Rehabilitation

Vocational Rehabilitation Information for Counselors

The services here at MTBM are a resource for counselors and representatives of individuals with disabilities. Our knowledgeable, experienced and demonstrated team is passionate about assisting your client through our proven and expertly constructed vocational rehabilitation services. Our driven team will help your client through individualized methods to support and guide them to attain, develop or realize their professional abilities.

Job Coaching

With a set of intensive one-on-one services in a competitive work setting, MTBM job coaching services are led by professionals who specialize in assisting those with disabilities to learn and accurately carry out job duties. Our one-on-one training is specially tailored to the needs of the employee. Our coaches may first do a job analysis to identify the job duties, followed by developing a specific plan as to how they can best train the employee independently or with minimal assistance. Our coaches most commonly work with individuals who have conditions such as Autism, learning disabilities, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and cognitive impairments. Job coaching is also one of the most frequently used accommodations by people with psychiatric disabilities that have been referred to our office.

Job Readiness Training Services

Job readiness training prepares an individual for seeking and maintaining employment through the use of instructional activities. While receiving assistance in choosing a vocation or job consistent with their aptitudes and interest, clients can learn lifelong skills in the areas of accessing labor market information, identifying job openings, understanding the application and interview process, worker rights, responsibilities, problem-solving, motivation and on-the-job behavior. Job readiness training may be individualized or provided in a group setting to enhance placeability.

Services may include but are not limited to:

• Job readiness assessment to determine work preparedness
• Access to labor market information, job openings, application process, employee rights, employee responsibilities, problem-solving, motivation, employee evaluation process, and on-the-job behaviors
• Instruction in interviewing techniques, application process, role-playing, employer rules and expectations, feedback and review
• Resume development
• And more

MTBM has developed and designed a curriculum for this workshop to facilitate qualified candidacy. Each participant is evaluated on their own level of competency through:

• A pre-assessment
• Ongoing assessment both formal and informal
• Post-training assessment

Throughout the process, we conduct pre-employment analyses and offer career counseling to assess the effectiveness of the training modules that have been created to teach and facilitate work skills to consumers with varying disabilities.

Work Evaluation

Our work evaluation process is a short-term assessment – typically 30 business days or less – that utilizes objective observations of work behaviors, physical capacities, work habits, interpersonal skills and functional skills to determine vocational options and interventions by having the client in a work situation. Observations may come from specific job settings or a variety of work samples. The purpose of these services is to determine client work habit strengths, barriers and needs and assess the client’s vocational options and recommend appropriate interventions, necessary services and training.

MTBM’s work evaluation services provide specific work behavior observations and recommendations, not limited to the following:

• Ability to follow directions
• Ability to utilize criticism and instruction
• Acceptable personal appearance and dress
• Accepting of job assignments
• Application of functional skills
• Attendance and punctuality
• Attitude and acceptance of responsibility
• Communication skills
• Co-worker relationships

• Physical capacities and job tolerance
• Problem-solving and decision-making skills
• Quality and quantity of work
• Response to supervision
• Safety awareness and practices
• Transportation accessibility and mobility
• Use of accommodations or job site modifications

Personal and Social Adjustment Counseling – PSAT Services

At MTBM, our personal and social adjustment training (PSAT) services, which are instructional, are designed to develop or re-establish personal and social behaviors designed to enhance an individual’s employability.

PSAT services may include but are not limited to the following:

• Community living
• Decision-making and problem-solving
• Health and medicine management
• Identifying, planning and providing the supports a person needs to achieve and maintain employment
• Interpersonal skill development
• Methods of appropriate communication
• Money management
• Personal grooming and hygiene
• Sexual awareness and appropriateness
• Understanding of self and abilities

PSAT services provide a comprehensive plan utilizing instructional classroom activities in small groups or individual instruction and may address:

• Community field trips
• Decision making in daily life activities
• Exercising informed choice
• Knowledge about the rights and responsibilities associated with employment
• Personal and social skills
• Problem-solving and resource utilization, including adaptive equipment
• Work attitudes and skills exploration

Work Literacy Services

Work literacy training is the development of soft skills to enhance an individual’s employability. Our curriculum is designed to provide necessary literacy skills in order to obtain and maintain entry-level employment, this service is provided through individualized or group settings with consideration to the client’s work goals.

Work Literacy Services may include:

• Assessing and evaluating the work literacy needs and abilities of the client
• Developing a comprehensive, individualized plan
• Depending on the identified and expressed preferences of the client, support and or training may address:
  
  • Work attitudes and skills exploration
  • Teaching skills needed
• And more

The soft skills enhancement training addresses:

• Barriers to communication with the workplace
• Barriers to employment success
• Digital communication skills

Vocational Evaluation and Vocational Profiles

This service has three different areas of focus: limited vocational evaluation, comprehensive vocational evaluation and comprehensive vocational profile.

Limited Vocational Evaluation

Through time-restrained assessments, our limited vocational evaluation measures the client’s strengths and identifies areas of need. As a method of assessing an individual’s aptitudes, interests and academic levels to develop realistic vocational goals and training objectives, the range of this evaluation can vary from: a limited assessment of skills and abilities to an assessment for a specific training program or vocational objective.

Comprehensive Vocational Evaluation

Our comprehensive vocational evaluation services provide a personalized and systematic process in that an individual, in partnership with the evaluator, learns to identify viable vocational options and develop employment goals and objectives. Comprehensive vocational evaluation service is a process that uses assessments some of the following:

• Accommodations
• Assistive technology
• Community-based job tryouts
• Functional capacities
• Modifications
• Occupational information

• Prevailing labor market data
• Situational assessments
• Testing
• Work samples

Comprehensive Vocational Profile

The comprehensive vocational profile is an option for a client who is unable to fully benefit from a limited or comprehensive vocational evaluation. After an in-depth evaluation of the individual, the profile is based on a file review and client interview and provides insight to client abilities, strengths, limitations and support systems for clients who have had very little or no work history. Providing effective job matching recommendations without relying on traditional measurement instruments, the comprehensive vocational profile format is composed of open-ended categories that allow for each person to be described in a unique manner. This method provides for evaluation results that do not adhere to standardized or norm-referenced testing to determine job readiness unless the client demonstrates an ability to participate in objective testing.The profile is used to provide information about the strengths, preferences, needs and barriers of the client when these are not evident given the severity of the disability. This evaluation provides detailed information related to the client’s activities of daily living, emotional functioning, independent living needs and accommodations for home and work.