Question:

What is vocational rehabilitation?

Answer:

Patients with Autoimmune Encephalitis often wonder if or when they can return to work. The best option, and something IAES recommends, is to work with a vocational rehabilitation therapist. Well, what is that you may ask?

Vocational rehabilitation is made up of a series of services that are designed to help individuals, who have disabilities or have recently acquired an injury or disability, such as autoimmune encephalitis. Vocational rehabilitation staff are often Nurses or rehabilitation staff who have had training regarding return to work rules, work benefits, how to help facilitate returning to a previous job or how an individual can start a new job. They may also evaluate if an individual should work limited hours based on how they are doing medically.

Some of These Services Include

• Vocational assessment and evaluation- helps to determine if you can return to your previous job or evaluates the skills you have that can be used at a new job.
• If an individual will need new training, upgrading of general skills, refresher courses, on-the-job training, or career counseling
• They can assist with employment searches, and consulting with potential or existing employers for job accommodations and modification. (This may also include a decrease in initial return to work hours and ongoing assessment of how an individual is doing and when hours can be increased).
• Help to explain any disability insurance that you have, how return to work may affect that, and how a work trial (or an attempt to return to work applies) without putting your benefits at risk.

These services may also vary depending on the needs of the individual. Often if you receive rehabilitation services from a rehabilitation center, they will have a vocational rehabilitation therapist available for you to meet with.

There are Various Resources Available if you need Vocational Rehabilitation

• Check your state’s vocational rehabilitation office to see what services are available in your area. You can visit the Job Accommodation Network (JAN) to find your state’s vocational rehabilitation offices/services. 
• You can also check the Department of Labor’s One-Stop Career Centers website, which offers career resources and workforce information to students, businesses, job seekers, and workforce professionals. Direct telephone: 877/889-5627.

References:

National Rehabilitation Information Center