Poverty and disability are interconnected and are cyclical in nature. That is, persons with disabilities and chronic illnesses are disproportionately represented among those living in poverty and poverty disproportionately affects individuals with disabilities. Socioeconomic status is the most powerful predictor of chronic disease, disability, and mortality. The intersection between poverty and disability and chronic illness is influenced by a host of factors including employment status, educational attainment, lack of insurance, lack of access to medical care, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Persons with disabilities living in poverty may have to contend with multiple risks associated with limited resources, high stress, neurobehavioral effects, and exposure to various traumas. This chapter examines how poverty, disability, and chronic illness influence one another, describes the impact of poverty, contributing factors that precipitate and result from living in poverty, and the relationship between poverty and disability, and discusses implications and strategies for counseling.

This chapter serves as the foundation for exploration of the definition, history, framework, nature, and significance of interdisciplinary practice in counseling and human services to improve outcomes for clients. It discusses the concept of “interdisciplinary” and “disciplinary foundations” to construct interdisciplinary linkages. The chapter explores common core characteristics of human services practice across the disciplines of counseling, rehabilitation counseling, social work, psychology, and allied health. It presents the information (a) roles and functions, (b) values and ideas, (c) cultural competence, and (d) knowledge, skills, and competence in the shared areas of human growth and development, clinical assessment and evaluation, goals development and implementation, application of interventions and evidence-based practices, and ethics. It also identifies the strategies for establishing interdisciplinary collaboration across various human services, health, and behavioral disciplines. Finally, the chapter examines the challenges and benefits of interdisciplinary practice within human services practice.

Ethics refer to a standard that guides a professional’s behavior and practice in the performance of their duties or delivery of services. The standard is expected by all members of an organization or profession that is entrusted to serve. In addition, ethical standards are a minimum threshold that associations envision members must meet to ensure both credibility and safety to the public. It is equally important to understand what ethics is not. Although ethics informs laws and legal systems, ethics differ from laws, even though both are created by a society and are codified. This chapter addresses basic ethical principles that most professional fields espouse while integrating and connecting ethics, the active fiber connecting these disciplines, and acknowledging the intersectionality of both ethical behavior and several human services professional disciplines.

The prison system serves as an institution not only for punishment of crimes committed but as a facility for rehabilitation of offenders. The process of reentry or reintegration may be varied among ex-offenders owing to life circumstances and abilities and is rarely a linear process. Many adult ex-offenders have disabilities that may allow them to apply and qualify for vocational rehabilitation services such as psychiatric disorders, substance abuse and addiction problems, intellectual disabilities, chronic health issues, and dual diagnoses. This chapter presents evidence-based practices for assisting ex-offenders with disabilities from an interdisciplinary and a multiservice provision perspective. Information is presented on barriers to community reintegration including legal concerns, barriers to employment, employers’ hiring practices, and self-imposed barriers. The intent is to present the systematic ways in which ex-offenders with disabilities are unrecognized as vulnerable and marginalized populations that can benefit from an array of services.

This chapter presents specific issues faced by older adults in response to adaptations to chronic illness and disability. Some individuals have congenital disabilities and others acquire a disability early in life and are able to adjust fairly easily, aging with their disability. On the other hand, some individuals acquire a disability later in life and may experience great difficulty making the adjustments to their condition. The chapter presents information on the age-related concerns of older adults, components and perceptions of aging, assessment issues associated with older adults, vocational interests, and death and dying perspectives. It also discusses the implications for service delivery in the context in which older adults are served along with laws and regulations that apply to the population. Aging and geriatric persons often utilize a variety of services from multiple entities (e.g., social, legal, medical, financial, and counseling).

Humans are constantly being attacked by infectious agents. Although infectious diseases are conditions in-and-of themselves, they can accompany other disorders. In the 1990s several researchers raised the question of a link between infectious diseases and mental illness disorders to some unknown degree, asserting “a better understanding of the role of infection may speed treatment and prevention efforts and reduce the degree of disability and stigma associated with mental illness”. Others believe not only a link exists between mental illness and infectious disease but even where pathogenesis disregards the brain, a silent epidemic of mental illness often accompanies outbreaks of infectious diseases. This chapter discusses select infectious diseases in adults, and their causes and symptoms. It describes the significance of these diseases for adults with disabilities and implications for psychosocial adjustment, employment, and quality of life. Finally, it presents a glossary of terms to assist the reader.

The proper diagnosis and the delivery of quality services do not change because the veteran has military culture–related experiences. This chapter explores how rehabilitation services can be an integral part of the veteran’s overall plan of care, whether directed by the Veterans Administration or community, state, or other human services providers. It presents information on multiple trauma, military culture, military cultural competence, and unique challenges the military culture creates for veterans and their family members during transition. The chapter gives special attention to the needs of women veterans, especially military sexual trauma. Finally, the chapter focuses on specific, evidence-based strategies that can be utilized to support transition and reintegration of veterans with disabilities into their families, communities, and work spaces. Service members’ needs are best served when practitioners have military cultural competence and are able to work across disciplines to delivery evidence-based practices.

The aging population is likely to result in increasing numbers of people with disabilities in the workforce, who may have difficulty staying employed. Effective counseling practices must increasingly include attention to preparing both individuals and their workplaces for the impact of the aging process. Proactive education about ways to maximize the productivity of an aging workforce, effective case management, and workplace accommodations can significantly contribute to maximizing aging worker retention. A better understanding of aging is more closely aligned with the developmental model. Career development may be presented as a lifelong, dynamic process that requires individuals to engage throughout their lifetime in the ongoing assessment, analysis, and synthesis of information about the world of work and self. Counselor educators can prepare counselors-in-training for this task by including aging issues in the counselor education curriculum.

Addressing diversity issues in rehabilitation service provision is an ethical imperative. What needs to be considered are the ways in which diversity can be achieved without stigmatizing the same clients who are supposed to benefit from services. This chapter enhances conceptual clarity in the use of terms descriptive of minority status in clients seeking rehabilitation services. It characterizes multicultural counseling as an essential approach to address diversity issues that impact the quality of rehabilitation services. The chapter then proposes the ways in which rehabilitation professionals may enhance cultural sensitivity in their education and practice, and addresses ethical issues in rehabilitation counseling practice for which the use of multicultural counseling approaches would be a solution. Client outcomes in rehabilitation are a product of an interaction between rehabilitation service capacity and client participation, and counseling outcomes improve as client participation increases.

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss issues of abuse, vulnerabilities, and intimate partner violence (IPV) for women with disabilities; the psychosocial disparities that these create; and the influence of intersectionality. Psychosocial disparities related to physical and mental health consequences; barriers to intervention and escape from IPV; and other positionalities of type of disability, race, sexual orientation, employment, rurality, and immigration status are presented. Evidence-based counseling approaches and the importance of cultural competence are also discussed. Resources and suggested additional readings are provided.