This book attempts to provide a comprehensive review of the career development and employment issues, theories, and techniques that impact rehabilitation professionals in their work with people with disabilities. It starts out by introducing the reader to the centrality of work. The psychology-of-work framework provides the reader with a foundation for understanding how and why work is central to individuals’ lives. The centrality of work also provides significant meaning and value to the work that rehabilitation professionals undertake to enhance the career development and employment of individuals with disabilities. In addition to the centrality of work, the book introduces the Illinois Work and Well-Being Model (IW2 M) as a framework to guide career and vocational development. Specifically, the IW2 M provides a structure that researchers and practitioners can use to examine the core factors that impact all phases of the career development process. The book continues to underscore the impact of poverty on the career development and employment prospects of individuals with disabilities. Although the awareness of poverty as a factor impacting career development has increased over the last 10 years, poverty is still undervalued as a career driver in the rehabilitation counseling literature. The issue of poverty will be extremely relevant in the post-COVID-19 world. Finally, the book provides a comprehensive review of the major theories related to career development and employment, including job satisfaction, work analysis, labor market research, and transferable skills analysis. Given the uncertainty of our time, the book helps the reader to either find reinforcement or develop a new-found appreciation regarding the career development and employment of people with disabilities and chronic health conditions. The book serves to be an important resource that can help facilitate their own career development and the career development of people with disabilities with whom they work.

One of the historical pillars of rehabilitation counseling has been the use of assessment throughout the rehabilitation process. With this historical emphasis, it is not surprising that the focus on assessment and the methods and techniques used have changed and evolved. As a result, students, practitioners, and researchers are on a constant quest for updated and current information to guide and inform practice, policy, and research. This constant quest for updated and comprehensive information is directly relevant to the assessment of individuals typically served by rehabilitation and mental health practitioners and is the focus of this book. To date, there has not been a book that has been able to provide a comprehensive discussion of topics applicable to service delivery across both setting. This book attempts to fill this gap. One factor that guided the development of this book was the authors’ goal to provide both the foundational information necessary to understand and plan the assessment process and combine this material with information that is applicable to specific population and service delivery settings. To achieve this goal, each of the chapters is written by leaders in the field who have specialized knowledge regarding the chapter content. The chapters provide practical hands on information that allows for easy incorporation of the material to rehabilitation and mental health practice. To further strengthen practical application, case studies and templates have been incorporated where applicable to highlight specific key aspects to promote application to service delivery. Second, this is the first assessment book to be developed after the Council on Rehabilitation Counselor Education and Council on the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Programs merger. Finally, the authors hope that the readers of this book can apply this information to enhance the overall quality of life of the individuals they work with, especially individuals with disabilities.

The book stands as a primary text in disability studies on the family and a supporting text in applications with rehabilitation counseling. The emphasis on community opens its value to practitioners, managers, and policy advocates. The first part of the book makes the case from philosophy to praxis for an alternative to current rehabilitation counseling paradigms. Nothing of our current practice is lost, but much is gained in its translation into a social model that places community at the center of a client-centered practice. This approach creates the appropriate space to bring rehabilitation counseling and the family together. Read in synthesis, the first five chapters present the framework for a community-based approach to rehabilitation counseling beyond the family. The second part of the book recounts the family disability experience across disability contexts. Each chapter provides a unique profile that maps the current relationship between rehabilitation counseling and the family experience. These chapters can be read alone as the state of practice and a guide to current rehabilitation counseling interventions. The final part of the book considers a sampling of the professional implications and considerations of moving forward with a community-based model. It explores cultural perspectives on disability and their relationships to family from the vantage point of four established collective identities: Hispanic Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans.