Rehabilitation Counselor Education Programs Regarding Essay

For the past several years, the wellness take and insurance industries in America control been undergoing significant reform in order to rein in the high cost of delivering health carry off serve. Managed c ar has become a cornerstone of this process (Strickland, 1995). The cutting guidance industry (with its focus on cost containment, managed competition, and quality c are) is playing an progressively cardinal role in the managed care environment (Owens, 1996). According to Mullahy (1995a), the bout of effort managers has risen astronomically in recent years.These individuals come from different professional backgrounds and apply settings that include care for, replenishment counseling, and social work. eluding heed, however, is not a new concept. Many human service, replacement, and health care professions have a history of using case steering models in the feat of their responsibilities. For example, in many psychiatric rehabilitation work settings social worker s are frequently hired as case managers to coordinate the provision of community-based go to their clientele (Sledge, Astrachan, Thompson, Rakfeldt, & Leaf, 1995). field management is in like manner an extremely important make for of rehabilitation counselors in both public and personal sectors (Leahy, Chan, Taylor, Wood & Downey, 1997 Leahy, Szymanski & Linkowski, 1993 Matkin, 1995). Similarly, checkup case management is increasingly being viewed as an essential grimace of professional treat approach pattern (Lamb, 1995). The Development of unavowed Sector Case Management The impetus for case management practice in health care settings can be traced to the skyrocketing cost of workers compensation in the 1970s.Private sector rehabilitation grew in response to the demand for vocational rehabilitation services by workers compensation insurance carriers (Matkin, 1995). Federal legislation also promoted the growth of tete-a-tete sector case management services. albeit inadver tently. The Rehabilitation process of 1973 gave priority within the state-federal vocational rehabilitation system to individuals with severe disabilities, do workers compensation carriers to seek vocational rehabilitation services for their (typically less intemperately injured) claimants in the private sector Habeck, Leahy, Hunt, Chan & Welch, 1991).In increasing numbers. rehabilitation nurses and rehabilitation counselors were hired to provide both medical and vocational case management services to workers compensation claimants. In the late 1980s, case management began to divulge its own impetus as an independent profession (E. Holt, personal communication, celestial latitude 1, 1996). In 1991, 29 organizations involved in the field gathered in Dallas, Texas, at a consensus meeting organized by the Individual Case Management Association.The intent was to agree upon the philosophical basis for case management, a universal definition of case management, and a set of meaningful practice standards. Eventually, a affirmation program for case managers was developed, including eligibility criteria and content areas for a deposition examination. On July 1, 1995, the Commission for Case Manager Certification (CCMC) was incorporated as a separate, independent credentialing body. Although the process is still very young, there are already over 19,000 Certified Case Mangers (CCMs) who have completed certification requirements.With technical and administrative support from the Foundation for Rehabilitation Education and Research, Leahy (1994) surveyed 14,078 practicing case managers representing multiple professional disciplines in a variety of work settings. His look into suggested that case managers share a common companionship base essential for case management practice comprised of five factors 1) coordination and delivery of services 2) personal and psychosocial aspects of handicap 3) benefit systems and cost benefit compend 4) case management concepts and 5) principles of community re-entry.Roles and Functions Studies In 1991, Matkin used a job analysis barbel to identify work role categories as well as knowledge requirements associated with the major tasks performed by rehabilitation specialists in the private sector (Matkin, 1995). septenary major knowledge domains were set, but case management and the coordination of rehabilitation services were determined to occupy approximately 40% of the subjects work time.More recently, Leahy, Chan, Taylor, Wood, and Downey (1997) identified seven empirically derived knowledge factors as important for effective private rehabilitation practice. These knowledge factors are vocational assessment and planning case management and reporting expert witness testimony employment and disability related legislation and regulations community resources psychosocial and functional aspects of disability and job analysis and odification. In their study, knowledge of case management was rated as most im portant with a mean (M) score of 3. 24 (based on a five-point Likert-type scale, with 0 meaning not important to 4 indicating absolutely essential). Their study whitethorn reflect a shift in private rehabilitation practice from predominantly vocational counseling and job placement to medical and vocational case management.These same researchers also found several distinctions between private rehabilitation practitioners with a rehabilitation counseling background and those with a nursing background. While specialists with rehabilitation counseling expertise viewed knowledge in vocational rehabilitation as important to private rehabilitation practice, practitioners with a nursing background believed that community resources and medical rehabilitation service coordination activities were more important.