Vocational Rehabilitation, Expert Testimony, and Life Care Planning FAQs
Frequently asked questions
Vocational rehabilitation is a process that enables persons with functional, psychological, developmental, cognitive, and/or emotional disabilities to overcome barriers to accessing, maintaining, or returning to employment.
A vocational counselor guides individuals through the process of obtaining employment, maintaining employment or returning to the workforce.
Vocational rehabilitation incorporates multiple services to include:
Vocational guidance and counseling
Vocational testing
Formulation of short and long term goals
Development of training, retraining, and on-the-job training programs
Interviewing skills development
Job seeking skills development
Job development
Job placement
Job analysis
Job placement follow-up
The difference mainly comes down to depth and purpose.
Vocational Assessment A vocational assessment is a high-level review of a person’s work history, education, skills, and current limitations. It’s used to identify general vocational options, employability, or next steps. These are often used early in a claim or case to guide planning and decision-making.
Vocational Evaluation A vocational evaluation is more detailed and formal. It may include testing, transferable skills analysis, labor market research, and written opinions. Evaluations are typically used when definitive conclusions are needed—such as in litigation, disability determinations, or expert testimony.
In short:
An assessment helps answer “What might be possible?”
An evaluation helps answer “What can be concluded, and supported?”
Re-employment Assessment
A re-employment assessment is an evaluation and planning step. It looks at an individual’s work history, skills, medical or physical restrictions, and the current job market to determine realistic job options and return-to-work potential. The outcome is a clear roadmap for re-employment.
Re-employment Services
Re-employment services are the hands-on support that follows an assessment. These services focus on helping the individual actually secure employment and may include job leads, resume assistance, interview coaching, employer contacts, and ongoing job search support.
In short:
A re-employment assessment answers “What jobs are realistically available?”
Re-employment services answer “How do we help the person get one?”
The majority of vocational experts have either a master's degree or PhD in rehabilitation counseling as well as a minimum of three to seven years work experience in assessing vocational capacity.
A vocational expert is an authority in the areas of vocational rehabilitation, earning capacity assessment, past and future loss of earnings, and lost ability/time in performing household services.
A vocational expert typically holds a graduate-level degree, certification(s) and has a considerable amount of work experience in the specialty of vocational rehabilitation.
A case manager is responsible for coordinating services to assist in the medical and vocational recovery process following injury.
A form of insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of employment in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee's right to sue his or her employer for the tort of negligence. The trade-off between assured, limited coverage and lack of recourse outside the worker compensation system is known as "the compensation bargain". One of the problems that the compensation bargain solved is the problem of employers becoming insolvent as a result of high damage awards. The system of collective liability was created to prevent that, and thus to ensure security of compensation to the workers.
"The life care plan is a dynamic document based upon published standards of practice, comprehensive assessment, data analysis, and research, which provides an organized, concise plan for current and future needs with associated costs for individuals who have experienced catastrophic injury or have chronic health care needs.” (International Conference on Life Care Planning and the International Academy of Life Care Planners. Adopted 1998, April.)
A certified life care planner is a professional who has a minimum of 120 hours of post-graduate or post-specialty degree training in life care planning or in areas that can be applied to the development of a life care plan or pertain to the service delivery applied to life care planning. In addition, the professional should have a minimum of 3 years field experience and meet the minimum requirements of their healthcare specialty. Professionals are re-certified every 5 years with proof of 80 CEU’s of which 8 are in ethics.
Frequently asked questions
Vocational rehabilitation is a process that enables persons with functional, psychological, developmental, cognitive, and/or emotional disabilities to overcome barriers to accessing, maintaining, or returning to employment.
A vocational counselor guides individuals through the process of obtaining employment, maintaining employment or returning to the workforce.
Vocational rehabilitation incorporates multiple services to include:
Vocational guidance and counseling
Vocational testing
Formulation of short and long term goals
Development of training, retraining, and on-the-job training programs
Interviewing skills development
Job seeking skills development
Job development
Job placement
Job analysis
Job placement follow-up
The difference mainly comes down to depth and purpose.
Vocational Assessment A vocational assessment is a high-level review of a person’s work history, education, skills, and current limitations. It’s used to identify general vocational options, employability, or next steps. These are often used early in a claim or case to guide planning and decision-making.
Vocational Evaluation A vocational evaluation is more detailed and formal. It may include testing, transferable skills analysis, labor market research, and written opinions. Evaluations are typically used when definitive conclusions are needed—such as in litigation, disability determinations, or expert testimony.
In short:
An assessment helps answer “What might be possible?”
An evaluation helps answer “What can be concluded, and supported?”
Re-employment Assessment
A re-employment assessment is an evaluation and planning step. It looks at an individual’s work history, skills, medical or physical restrictions, and the current job market to determine realistic job options and return-to-work potential. The outcome is a clear roadmap for re-employment.
Re-employment Services
Re-employment services are the hands-on support that follows an assessment. These services focus on helping the individual actually secure employment and may include job leads, resume assistance, interview coaching, employer contacts, and ongoing job search support.
In short:
A re-employment assessment answers “What jobs are realistically available?”
Re-employment services answer “How do we help the person get one?”
The majority of vocational experts have either a master's degree or PhD in rehabilitation counseling as well as a minimum of three to seven years work experience in assessing vocational capacity.
A vocational expert is an authority in the areas of vocational rehabilitation, earning capacity assessment, past and future loss of earnings, and lost ability/time in performing household services.
A vocational expert typically holds a graduate-level degree, certification(s) and has a considerable amount of work experience in the specialty of vocational rehabilitation.
A case manager is responsible for coordinating services to assist in the medical and vocational recovery process following injury.
A form of insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of employment in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee's right to sue his or her employer for the tort of negligence. The trade-off between assured, limited coverage and lack of recourse outside the worker compensation system is known as "the compensation bargain". One of the problems that the compensation bargain solved is the problem of employers becoming insolvent as a result of high damage awards. The system of collective liability was created to prevent that, and thus to ensure security of compensation to the workers.
"The life care plan is a dynamic document based upon published standards of practice, comprehensive assessment, data analysis, and research, which provides an organized, concise plan for current and future needs with associated costs for individuals who have experienced catastrophic injury or have chronic health care needs.” (International Conference on Life Care Planning and the International Academy of Life Care Planners. Adopted 1998, April.)
A certified life care planner is a professional who has a minimum of 120 hours of post-graduate or post-specialty degree training in life care planning or in areas that can be applied to the development of a life care plan or pertain to the service delivery applied to life care planning. In addition, the professional should have a minimum of 3 years field experience and meet the minimum requirements of their healthcare specialty. Professionals are re-certified every 5 years with proof of 80 CEU’s of which 8 are in ethics.