Microaggressions play a prominent role in the cultural competency of the rehabilitation professionals. Understanding these biases and stereotypes faced by the individuals living with HIV/AIDS from a social justice and systemic perspective is crucial to become a culturally competent rehabilitation counselor. The current article is a systematic review of the anecdotal and scientific literature from 1900 to 2017 about these microaggressions toward individuals with HIV/AIDS. Authors present the common themes that emerged out of this extensive qualitative analysis by utilizing the Urie Bronfenbrenner's ecological model as a basis and discuss its impact from a social justice perspective. Implications for rehabilitation counselors and future recommendations are presented at the end.

This article presents an analysis of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in relation to prior United Nations conventions on disability and U.S. disability policy law with a view to identifying the conventional and also the incremental advances of the CRPD. Previous United Nations conventions related to disability have had, at best, partial success in effectively protecting the human rights of individuals with disabilities. The CRPD, as a policy instrument, has considerable potential for advancing the legal rights of persons with disabilities in the United States and globally. This article reviews this potential from national and international perspectives and explores the implications of the CRPD for rehabilitation counseling advocacy and education.

Purpose: The purpose of this conceptual article is to present a framework that incorporates the concept of culture humility into effective rehabilitation services.

Method: Based on a comprehensive literature review and theoretical integration, this article provides the reader with the basic concept of cultural humility, similarities and differences between cultural humility and cultural competence, and significance of the cultural humility concept to rehabilitation counseling.

Results: The literature consistently describes the need for professionals to be culturally competent to effectively serve an increasingly diverse population. However, when using only a multicultural competency framework, counselors may have false beliefs about their competence in working with culturally diverse individuals, understate the power imbalance between service providers and clients, and ignore institutional (e.g., system, homophobia, racism) accountability. Cultural humility can directly address these issues and serve as a complement to cultural competence in rehabilitation counseling services given its emphasis on reflectivity, power differentials between counselors and clients, and institutional accountability.

Conclusion: Cultural humility can be applied to rehabilitation research, education, and practice. We need to broaden multicultural rehabilitation counseling through a cultural humility approach.

Purpose: To apply the constructs of social cognitive theory (SCT) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to understand the stages of change (SOC) for physical activities among individuals with a spinal cord injury (SCI).

Method: Ex post facto design using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The participants were 144 individuals with SCI who completed an online SCT, TPB, and SOC for physical activities survey.

Results: Participants in the preintender, intender, and actor groups differed significantly in functional disability, secondary health conditions, exercise self-efficacy, perceived benefits and barriers, intention, and physical health.

Conclusion: Findings support the concept of stage-matching exercise and physical activity cognitive behavioral interventions for people with SCI.

Purpose: To determine the amount, frequency, and type of course content related to military counseling issues in Council on Rehabilitation Education (CORE)- and Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP)-accredited master’s-level counselor education programs.

Methods: A questionnaire was sent to all CORE- and CACREP-accredited program directors/coordinators (N = 383) via Microsoft Outlook e-mail system. The authors used the 6-item questionnaire to ask participants to report data in the following areas: (a) if their program offered a certificate program, specialty track, concentration, or degree program in military counseling; (b) if not, do they intend to add a stand-alone military counseling course, certificate program, specialty track, or degree program in military counseling; (c) if they currently have plans, how do they intend to deliver such topics within the structure of their curriculum or counselor education program; (d) if coursework already exists, how is it currently structured within their curriculum and counselor education program; and (e) 3 open-end questions requesting course titles; semester hours related to course content, curriculum, and/or concentration, and comments regarding student assignments and/or projects that are military related.

Results: Overall, out of 362 programs surveyed, 85 (23.4%) responded. All 85 of survey respondents indicated that they did not have a (a) certificate program, (b) specialty track, or (c) degree program that related to military counseling. Of the 85 programs, 34 schools (4.7%) had developed stand-alone courses that offered military counseling content. More than two-thirds of the 85 programs reported covering military counseling content in various courses across the curriculum.

Conclusion: None of the program directors/coordinators in this study indicated they had a specialty track, concentration, or certificate program. Some of the participants indicated they were considering adding additional seminars, courses, and other student experiences that would integrate assessment, diagnosis, and treatment for persons that are active-duty personnel and veterans. Overall, the data suggest that there is greater attention and a willingness among counselor educators to infuse military counseling–related coursework. This is promising because it is critical that preprofessionals and professionals alike be introduced to the emerging population of providing rehabilitation counseling services to military personnel, veterans, and their family members.

Purpose: This article conceptualizes teaching alliance as a framework to guide educators in teaching the affective components of working alliance (WA) through enhanced student–teacher relationships and augmented curricular focus on therapeutic bonds.

Method: Drawing on the extant literature, and integrating counseling and educational theory, this article reviews the origins and evolution of the WA, conceptualizing WA as an evidence-based practice, counselor competency, and hallmark of professional identity.

Results: Teaching alliance pedagogies are conceptualized across the curriculum, in clinical supervision, and as an innovative course designed to deepen understanding of the cognitively complex, affective components of WA. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for research, education, and practice.

Conclusion: Early and increased curricular focus on the nondirective aspects of the teacher–student relationship offers promise in facilitating students’ self-actualizing tendencies and the ultimate achievement of counselor competence and strong professional identity.

The historical evolution of the rehabilitation profession is addressed, and current issues facing rehabilitation educators and professionals are identified. Clearly, both our practice environments and our consumers are continuously evolving and becoming more diverse. Simultaneously, a need exists to be seen as a stable, unified profession. Specific issues including the continuing development of private rehabilitation licensure and accreditation, increasing consumer diversity, and movement toward evidence-based practices are identified as critical issues for rehabilitation educators and professionals.

We reviewed 11 well-recognized counseling theories, seeking those that best fit requirements of rehabilitation counselors and clients. We looked specifically for methods that were goal-oriented, supported counselor-client collaboration, and were person-centered, brief, and evidence based. Motivational Interviewing (MI) and Solution Focused Therapy (SFT) fit our criteria on four of five dimensions. We describe these two counseling modalities and illustrate techniques, using hypothetical examples from rehabilitation counseling contexts, and provide specific recommendations for rehabilitation educators.

The relationships among counselor personal states and work experiences (working alliance self-efficacy, burnout, flourishing, and caseload size) were investigated in a sample of rehabilitation counselors (N = 137). Results from regression analyses revealed 4 burnout factors are significantly and uniquely contributing to counselor flourishing levels. The results from a second model revealed that caseload size and working alliance efficacy are impacting overall burnout levels. The findings indicate that burnout and flourishing are strongly related to each other and may have implications for client outcomes. Counselors with high flourishing levels may shield clients from the negative effects of job related burnout. Caseload size is also contributing to burnout levels. Implications and recommendations for counselor self-care and workplace practices are discussed.

Unifying the field of rehabilitation counseling appears to be a daunting task. Many researchers have investigated this phenomenon and have also written position papers arguing for a specific identity perspective: either as a counseling specialty or as a separate profession. The current study examined beliefs about the field of rehabilitation counseling among trainees and investigated factors that influenced these beliefs. A scale was developed to collect data about perceptions of master's-level students in Council on Rehabilitation Education (CORE)-accredited training programs. Data were collected from 67 participants in 12 programs. Results indicated that two-thirds of trainees believed that rehabilitation counseling is a counseling specialty. Previous work experience of the trainees was most likely to influence this position.

Purpose: To examine the measurement structure of the Brief Adaptation to Disability Scale-Revised (B-ADS-R).

Measure: A 12-item measure of disability acceptance based on the four value changes (enlarging the scope of values, containing the effects of the disability, subordinating the physique, and transforming comparative-status values to asset values) postulated by Beatrice Wright.

Participants: 154 Taiwanese with spinal cord injury living in the community.

Results: The 4-factor intercorrelated model fits the data very well: χ²(48, N = 154) = 82.26, p < .01; χ²/df = 1.71; CFI = .95; RMSEA = .07 with 90% CI (.04, .09). The 4 B-ADS-R factors closely replicate the theoretical constructs of disability acceptance with acceptable reliability and validity.

Conclusion: The B-ADS-R was found to measure the four value changes postulated by Beatrice Wright in her disability acceptance theory in a sample of Taiwanese with SCI. It demonstrated adequate psychometric properties and can be used as a brief measure of disability acceptance in rehabilitation research and clinical practice.

Purpose: To determine methods of student learning assessment and clinical training in rehabilitation counseling programs. With many shifts occurring in postsecondary education and in rehabilitation counseling, it is critical to understand these current practices.

Method: The authors used an Internet-based survey design to solicit program approaches to student learning assessment and clinical training. Respondents (n = 34) provided description of assessments, perceived effectiveness, satisfaction, and brief comments on the strengths and weaknesses of the approaches employed by the program.

Results: Programs reported various assessments used during and at the completion of the training program. Programs also reported varied frequency and intensity of involvement with clinical placement, although most seek certified rehabilitation counselors as supervisors along with other professionals.

Conclusion: Strengthening assessment methods to be able to show that students possess the clinical skills and knowledge necessary to become effective counselors is a high priority for our field and will become increasingly necessary within the context of changing credentialing standards.

Objective: To examine the roles of attachment, social support, and coping as psychosocial correlates in predicting happiness in people with spinal cord injuries.

Design: Quantitative descriptive research design using multiple regression and correlation techniques.

Participants: 274 individuals with spinal cord injuries.

Outcome Measures: Happiness as measured by the Subjective Happiness Scale.

Results: Functional disability and psychosocial correlates including coping, attachment styles, and social support were found to be associated with happiness scores. Functional disability was found to have a large negative effect on happiness and the effect was significantly reduced after taking into consideration the effect of positive psychology factors.

Conclusion: Positive psychology variables are important for happiness and subjective well-being, and happiness in turn is related to better quality of life. The negative relationship between functional disability and happiness can be mediated by attachment, social support, and coping. Rehabilitation professionals should deemphasize negative characteristics related to poor psychological adjustment and focus on positive human traits and positive psychology interventions for people with disabilities.

The purpose of this study was to explore certified rehabilitation counselors’ (CRCs’) importance of and preparedness in the labor market survey (LMS) competency through data collected by the Knowledge Validation Inventory-Revised (KVI-R) instrument used by the Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification’s (CRCC) 2011 role and function study (CCRC, 2011b; Leahy, Chan, Sung, & Kim, 2011). LMS is a primary data collection method for gathering occupational and labor market information. Thus, this competency was examined because of its importance in the areas of rehabilitation counseling where this data is usually applied—transferable skills analysis, vocational decision making, job development and placement, and forensics. In this ex post facto secondary analysis, the single largest group of CRCs found LMS to be very to extremely important but also reported only moderate preparedness to perform the function. Significant differences were found by geographical location, particularly between the Mid and South Atlantic, and in experience. Discussion, conclusions, implications, and areas for further research are addressed.

Purpose: The aim of this work was to develop a campaign to promote an environment of solidarity and support on college campuses for students with mental illnesses.

Method: Data were gathered from 24 members of a Chicago university campus who were selected as representatives of key campus stakeholder groups including students, administrative staff, counseling center staff, residence life staff, and faculty. Participants attended focus groups and key-informant interviews during the fall of 2011.

Results: Qualitative analyses using grounded theory methodology revealed themes corresponding to two distinct overarching constructs: potential benefits of the campaign and potential concerns of the campaign.

Conclusion: Development of a campaign informed by these results to promote a supportive environment on college campuses for students with mental illnesses may have a positive impact on students’ outcomes.

Purpose: We sought to understand the experiences of family members and direct care staff of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in a private pay day program focused on socialization and recreational skills.

Method: Two focus groups were held with parents/caregivers and one with staff. Using an interpretive method, two investigators independently coded the transcripts and arrived at themes.

Results: Themes identified included transition, lack of information, lack of resources, caregiver needs, independence, employment, and education.

Conclusion: Families and staff experienced frustration with service fragmentation/access to alternative programming. Families and staff wanted opportunities for employment and independent living programming but lacked resources. Implications for practice and policy are discussed.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an unpredictable, sometimes progressive chronic illness affecting people in the prime of their working lives. This article reviews the effects of MS on employment based on the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health model. Correlations between employment and personal, functional, environmental, and participation factors are discussed along with the need for a framework for evidence-based practice regarding the employment of people with MS.

Objective: To determine the factorial validity of the Internal and External Motivation to Respond without Prejudice toward People with Disabilities Scale (D-IMS/EMS).

Design: A quantitative descriptive design using factor analysis.

Participants: 233 rehabilitation counseling and rehabilitation services students.

Results: Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis provided evidence for the 2-factor structure of the D-IMS/EMS. The internal motivation and external motivation factors were found to correlate with the Attitudes toward Disabled Persons—Form A and the Contact with Disabled Persons Scale in the predicted direction.

Conclusions: The D-IMS/EMS appears to have sufficient reliability and validity; the 2-factor solution was found to be acceptable. Further research with other groups of participants is needed.

The 2004 Council on Rehabilitation Education (CORE) standards were revised to include Human Growth and Development (HGD) as a knowledge domain. The HGD domain introduces a significant amount of new content to the curriculum, including several topics that have not traditionally appeared in the rehabilitation counselor educational curriculum. Thus, this domain presents both an educational challenge and an educational and professional opportunity. Our purposes in this article are to review the place of HGD in the CORE curriculum and in rehabilitation counseling practice; to describe the HGD knowledge domain and its educational outcomes; and to discuss educational perspectives on this knowledge domain in the preservice curriculum. We propose that the inclusion of the HGD domain provides an opportunity for improving professional practice and for exploring our current and future professional roles.

Purpose: To determine what disability-inclusive policies and practices employers have in place and examine the relationship between these practices and the actual recruitment and hiring of persons with disabilities.

Method: A survey 675 of human resources professionals who were members of the Society for Human Resource Management.

Results: After controlling for organizational characteristics, 9 of the 10 specific recruitment and hiring practices/policies examined in this study were found to significantly increase the likelihood of hiring individuals with disabilities.

Conclusions: The findings inform rehabilitation professionals who interface regularly with businesses regarding good practices for finding and hiring qualified candidates.

Purpose: This study assessed and demonstrated the efficacy of two select empirical forecast models (i.e., autoregressive integrated moving average [ARIMA] model vs. grey model [GM]) in accurately predicting state vocational rehabilitation agency (SVRA) rehabilitation success rate trends across six different racial and ethnic population cohorts (i.e., Blacks or African Americans, non-Latino Whites, American Indians or Alaskan Natives, Asians, Native Hawaiians or other Pacific Islanders, and Latinos). Methods: Eleven years of Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA)-911 case record data (fiscal year [FY] 2004 through 2014) on SVRA employment outcomes were extracted and entered into the ARIMA model and GM to test their predictive performance. Results: The GM was demonstrated to be superior to the ARIMA model in predictive accuracy performance. Remarkably, although the GM (1, 1) 3-year frequency curve projection simulation results (FY 2015–2017) showed a slight upward trajectory in the number of successfully rehabilitated Latinos compared to baseline FY 2014 actual numbers, more drastic downward trajectories were projected for Blacks or African Americans, non-Latino Whites, American Indians or Alaskan Natives, Asians, and Native Hawaiians or other Pacific Islanders. Conclusions: The GM represents a demonstrably capable and promising forecasting tool that could be useful to SVRA leaders, policy makers, advocates, and researchers in simulating predictions that inform future policy initiatives, influence strategic plan development, and help guide the state of the science on future research and development foci. Additional multiple comprehensive demonstration trials, nonetheless, are needed to either confirm or refute the GM’s veracity in national and state predictive accuracy and curve fitting performance.

Objectives: To examine the effect of rehabilitation technology interventions on the employment or job retention outcomes of individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) served by the state-federal vocational rehabilitation program using a case-control study design.

Participants: Data for this study were extracted from the Rehabilitation Services Administration Case Service Report database. The sample included 8,715 individuals with MS aged between 16 and 64 years old whose cases were closed between the fiscal years of 2007 and 2011.

Outcome measure: Competitive employment.

Results: The classification and regression tree method identified 5 homogeneous subgroups ranging from high to low propensity to receive rehabilitation technology services. Specifically, individuals with MS employed at application were most likely to receive rehabilitation technology intervention. The effect of rehabilitation technology on job retention was especially strong for individuals aged 35 years or older with a college education.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that rehabilitation technology is an effective service for enhancing job retention outcomes of middle-aged and older adults with MS and provide valuable information for policymakers, health care providers, rehabilitation counselors, and educators.

This article presents an overview of multiple sclerosis (MS), one of the most common neurological disorders in the western hemisphere. Medical and psychosocial aspects of the disease such as causes and risk factors, diagnosis, incidence and prevalence, symptoms, courses, and treatment are described. Existing research regarding the employment outcomes and concerns of people with MS, especially the factors associated with labor force participation, is reviewed. Intervention strategies to enable individuals with MS to retain their employment are discussed such as early education on the nature of MS, advocacy-supported disclosure, and accommodation techniques for symptom management at the workplace. Important workplace accommodations include flexible work hours and work breaks, ergonomic changes in equipment to address upper and lower body limitations, and job simplification or other compensatory strategies to minimize the impact of cognitive problems on job performance.

Purpose: The study aimed to understand how use and satisfaction with services following discharge from an acquired brain injury (ABI) acute-care facility related to family caregiver outcomes.

Methods: A correlational and descriptive study design was used. Nineteen primary family caregivers of persons recently discharged from an ABI acute-care facility in a large city in the southwestern part of the United States participated.

Results: Satisfaction with the services provided during post–acute-care rehabilitation demonstrated medium effect size relationships to family caregiver depression, family dysfunction, and extent of rehabilitation needs met. Service use demonstrated a medium effect size relationship to caregiver family dysfunction.

Conclusion: Findings present a call for future research to examine the role of service use and service satisfaction during the continuum of care from acute-care to long-term community integration following ABI.

Purpose: In this article, we seek to determine whether psychiatric rehabilitation principles and practices have been more fully incorporated into the Council on Rehabilitation Education (CORE) standards, the extent to which they are covered in four rehabilitation counseling “foundations” textbooks, and how they are reflected in the contents of three key journals in rehabilitation counseling.

Methods: We conducted a detailed review of literature that has surveyed coordinators of graduate programs accredited by the CORE as well as research that investigates the preparedness of graduates of CORE-accredited rehabilitation counseling programs to deliver services to people with psychiatric disabilities.

Results: This review found that psychiatric rehabilitation is only touched upon in the CORE standards, is modestly alluded to in the most commonly used foundational textbooks, and has very few articles about it published annually in rehabilitation journals.

Conclusion: Recommendations on methods for increasing psychiatric rehabilitation content in CORE-accredited programs are provided. Specific suggestions are made for resources and activities that can be added to rehabilitation counseling curricula to include psychiatric rehabilitation.

Purpose: To conduct a content analysis of the rehabilitation counseling literature to identify articles published on aging.

Method: To determine the number of articles that were published on aging in rehabilitation counseling journals, a content analysis of articles from 2000 through 2012 was performed. For purposes of this review, only full-length, peer-reviewed articles (i.e., research studies, literature reviews, and program descriptions) with abstracts were included for analysis.

Results: The prevalence of articles addressing aging in the mainstream rehabilitation counseling literature is limited over a 13-year period. Since 2000, only 24 (l.3 %) articles in rehabilitation journals account for content on aging.

Conclusion: Several facts are clear regarding older individuals, including their increased life expectancy, extended stay in the workplace, and living with a disability. Given those realities, the field of rehabilitation counseling must be poised to respond with evidence-based research to address the needs and demands of the aging population with disabilities in the workplace, around quality of life issues, and within a sociopolitical context of globalization.

Purpose: The purpose of this article was to gather descriptive data on the professional use of social media in public rehabilitation settings and to analyze existing social media policies in those agencies through content analysis.

Methods: The authors sent a survey to all state administrators or directors of these agencies (N = 50) in the United States, requesting frequency and other descriptive information, plus a copy of their social media policies (if available). The available policies were reviewed using content analysis procedures.

Results: The results showed that although the frequency of social media use was high, training and inclusion of ethics was low. Regarding policy, approximately 42% reported a lack of an existing policy, and 38% were unsure about having a policy guide. The analysis of the available policies yielded 11 themes around which these policies were organized.

Discussion: The authors offer a discussion of these results and its implications for policy and practice as well as future research. These include the need for more comprehensive social media policy creation in agencies and the role of clinical supervisors in ensuring ethical practice.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to validate the Vocational Rehabilitation Engagement Scale (VRES) for use in the Clubhouse Model of Psychosocial Rehabilitation.

Method: There were 124 individuals with serious mental illness recruited from 8 Clubhouse programs in Hawaii. Measurement structure of the VRES was evaluated using exploratory factor analysis.

Results: Exploratory factor analysis of the Clubhouse version of the VRES yielded 2 reliable factors (cognitive-affective engagement and behavioral engagement). Both the cognitive-affective engagement and behavioral engagement factors were found to correlate with other self-determination theory constructs including autonomy support, relatedness, and outcome expectancy.

Conclusions: The Clubhouse version of the VRES is a brief, reliable, and valid instrument for assessing vocational rehabilitation (VR) engagement and contributes to the use of self-determination as a paradigm for improving recovery outcomes in psychiatric rehabilitation.

Early definitions of cultural diversity focused primarily on race/ethnicity, with subsequent inclusion of age, gender, sexual orientation, class, religion, geography, and a combination of positionalities. More recently, social justice has resurfaced as a component of cultural diversity to explain experiences of people of color, women, and marginalized groups. This article examines the movement to include cultural diversity and social justice in rehabilitation education, and offers a model for curriculum development in light of the new CORE standards.

Purpose: To compare pay gap estimates across 3 different national survey data sets for people with disabilities relative to those without disabilities when pay is measured as wage and salary alone versus a (total compensation) definition that includes an estimate of the value of benefits.

Method: Estimates of the cost to the employers of employee benefits at the occupational level from an employer survey data set are matched to individual-level data in each of the 3 data sets. Multiple regression techniques are applied to estimate wage and salary and total compensation gaps between full-time men with and without disabilities.

Results: For full-time working men with disabilities (relative to those without disabilities), there is a consistently larger percentage wage and salary gap than percentage total compensation gap and breadth of the definition of pay affects the size of any estimated pay gap. In addition, there are differences in the estimated pay gaps depending on data source and disability measure.

Conclusions: Results obtained from a single data set or definition of key variables may not be broadly generalizable. Studies containing such limitations should be interpreted cautiously. Our research further suggests employers looking to hire persons with disabilities or those offering employment placement services should put substantial weight on the non–base pay component of the total compensation package.

Purpose: To examine rural and urban differences in Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) case mix, delivery practices, and employment outcomes.

Methods: Rehabilitation Services Administration 911 (RSA-911) case data do not include location indicators that allow for rural analyses. We compiled RSA-911 data with county and ZIP code information from 47 VR agencies matched with additional sources to control for geographic and economic variations. Rural analyses included cross tabulations and logistic regression.

Results: Findings indicate that urban, large rural, small rural, and isolated rural outcomes and case mixes are significantly different based on education, age, minority status, receipt of Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income, and disability type (p ≤ .001).

Conclusion: Geographic indicators allow for differences to be explored and considered when making programmatic changes within the VR system.

In 2007, we offered an innovative blended graduate level rehabilitation counseling course. The course was delivered online and in Hong Kong. It included readings, PowerPoint presentations and discussion board features on Blackboard, as well as face-to-face lectures and guest speakers in a classroom context at the City University of Hong Kong. Additionally, students were required to visit various psychiatric rehabilitation and mental health programs throughout Hong Kong, and participation in the 2007 World Congress of the World Federation for Mental Health. Two faculty members and 13 students spenta total of 10 days in Hong Kong. The authors discuss the development and delivery of the course including course design, content, delivery methods and logistics. Implications are explored for teaching innovation in rehabilitation education.