What does a vocational rehabilitation counselor do?
The primary role of a vocational rehabilitation counselor is to help disabled people to live fully and independently. Vocational rehabilitation counselors assist people with disabilities in securing employment. They provide health care to those who are coping with mental illness, substance abuse issues, psychological disorders, or physical disabilities. Knowledge of patient care, health management, rehabilitation program, and clinical psychology is a must for this job.
Vocational rehabilitation counselor responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real vocational rehabilitation counselor resumes:
- Collaborate with institutions of higher learning and local organizations to help assign veterans achieve independent living and academic success.
- Conduct vocational assessments, transferable skills analyses, labor market surveys; write r sum s and relate correspondence.
- Conduct diagnosis interview, eligibility determination, review assessments, plan and implement individual plan for employment (IPE).
- Determine eligibility for services and develop individualized rehabilitation programs.
- Provide independent professional vocational rehabilitation counseling to individuals with disabilities.
- Apply creative and professional conflict resolution strategies to ensure RTW plan success.
- Provide guidance and counseling toward best possible vocational goals for clients who are in need of services.
- Assess client needs, and design and implement IPE inclusive of vocational counseling, training and job placement.
- Participate in the creation of and implementation of several IDM programs as the dedicated vocational and RTW specialist.
- Assist in making sure that outside dorm area are a safe environment for all students at all times.
- Provide group and individual counseling to patients receiving medication assist therapy through comprehensive recovery-orient and trauma inform treatment planning and implementation.
- Document meetings and goals in HRA website.
- Perform ADL's, assist with feeding, administering medications, provide transportation.
- Facilitate individual treatment plans and groups base on DBT methodology.
- Engage clients in psycho-educational capacity to improve ADL functioning.
Vocational rehabilitation counselor skills and personality traits
We calculated that 20% of Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors are proficient in Rehabilitation, Substance Abuse, and Transferable. They’re also known for soft skills such as Communication skills, Interpersonal skills, and Listening skills.
We break down the percentage of Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Rehabilitation, 20%
Provided independent professional vocational rehabilitation counseling to individuals with disabilities.
- Substance Abuse, 12%
Provided individual and group therapy to individuals with mental and substance abuse disorders utilizing an integrated counseling model as appropriate
- Transferable, 8%
Analyzed and applied transferable skills.
- Plan Development, 7%
Facilitate comprehensive vocational rehabilitation plan development with job candidates that reflect their interests, skills, abilities, and relevant limitations.
- Vocational Assessments, 6%
Review medical documentation and conducted informal vocational assessments and career exploration in order to determine and coordinate vocational needs.
- Social Work, 6%
Coordinate with Veteran Justice Outreach Social Workers, Sheriff Office Detention Staff, and SARRTP Intake Coordinator for a seamless transition.
"rehabilitation," "substance abuse," and "transferable" are among the most common skills that vocational rehabilitation counselors use at work. You can find even more vocational rehabilitation counselor responsibilities below, including:
Communication skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a vocational rehabilitation counselor to have is communication skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "rehabilitation counselors need to be able to communicate effectively with clients." Vocational rehabilitation counselors often use communication skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "monitor the progress of a caseload of 50 individuals in addition to record keeping and communication with other community agencies. "
Interpersonal skills. Many vocational rehabilitation counselor duties rely on interpersonal skills. "rehabilitation counselors must be able to work with different types of people," so a vocational rehabilitation counselor will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways vocational rehabilitation counselor responsibilities rely on interpersonal skills: "facilitated course work in resume preparation, interviewing skills, time management, stress management, interpersonal skills development and decision-making. "
Listening skills. This is an important skill for vocational rehabilitation counselors to perform their duties. For an example of how vocational rehabilitation counselor responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "good listening skills are essential for rehabilitation counselors." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a vocational rehabilitation counselor: "communicated with orange county high schools to provide outreach and information regarding vocational rehabilitation services. ".
The three companies that hire the most vocational rehabilitation counselors are:
- Spectrum Healthcare Resources10 vocational rehabilitation counselors jobs
- My Florida Regional Mls9 vocational rehabilitation counselors jobs
- Apogee Enterprises4 vocational rehabilitation counselors jobs
Choose from 10+ customizable vocational rehabilitation counselor resume templates
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Compare different vocational rehabilitation counselors
Vocational rehabilitation counselor vs. Clinician
A clinician specializes in providing diagnosis, treatment, and direct care to patients with different illnesses. A clinician's duties mainly revolve around conducting extensive research and analysis, providing medical care through various therapies, and improving one's overall health condition. Furthermore, a clinician must obtain and analyze a patient's complete medical history, provide diagnostic tests, always monitor the effects of treatment on a patient, provide prognosis and consider the overall impact on a patient's health and well-being.
While similarities exist, there are also some differences between vocational rehabilitation counselors and clinician. For instance, vocational rehabilitation counselor responsibilities require skills such as "substance abuse," "transferable," "plan development," and "vocational assessments." Whereas a clinician is skilled in "patients," "patient care," "individual therapy," and "clinical services." This is part of what separates the two careers.
On average, clinicians reach higher levels of education than vocational rehabilitation counselors. Clinicians are 5.5% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 2.1% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Vocational rehabilitation counselor vs. Family therapist
A Family Therapist works with couples and families to help ameliorate marital and family issues. They can work in hospitals, treatment programs, government agencies, health organizations, and private practices.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that vocational rehabilitation counselor responsibilities requires skills like "substance abuse," "transferable," "plan development," and "vocational assessments." But a family therapist might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "patients," "mental health issues," "group therapy," and "child abuse."
Family therapists earn a higher average salary than vocational rehabilitation counselors. But family therapists earn the highest pay in the health care industry, with an average salary of $50,267. Additionally, vocational rehabilitation counselors earn the highest salaries in the non profits with average pay of $51,785 annually.In general, family therapists achieve higher levels of education than vocational rehabilitation counselors. They're 11.5% more likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 2.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for vocational rehabilitation counselors in the next 3-5 years?
Lesley Casarez Ph.D.
Director, Quality Enhancement Plan Program Coordinator, M.S. Professional School Counseling Associate Professor, Curriculum and Instruction, Angelo State University
Vocational rehabilitation counselor vs. Assessment specialist
An assessment specialist is an administrative professional who is responsible for designing and conducting assessment tests for a variety of academic clients. Assessment specialists are required to coordinate and implement the student testing program, which includes assessing an individual child's needs, potentials, and limitations. They must monitor special education or talent and gifted (TAG) staff to ensure that objectives are met. Assessment specialists must also need to know state laws and federal that pertain to educational assessments.
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from vocational rehabilitation counselor resumes include skills like "substance abuse," "transferable," "plan development," and "vocational assessments," whereas an assessment specialist is more likely to list skills in "worksheets," "patients," "edition," and "professional development. "
Assessment specialists earn the best pay in the technology industry, where they command an average salary of $71,059. Vocational rehabilitation counselors earn the highest pay from the non profits industry, with an average salary of $51,785.When it comes to education, assessment specialists tend to earn lower degree levels compared to vocational rehabilitation counselors. In fact, they're 9.5% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 1.4% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Vocational rehabilitation counselor vs. Mental health practitioner
Mental health practitioners are medical professionals who work with patients who have mental health issues such as schizophrenia, split personality disorder, and depression. These practitioners are required to develop and implement patient care plans for adults with severe mental disabilities while providing mental health services to attain improved mental health. They must make sure that patients did not spit out their medicines by observing post medication administration with the nurse. Mental health practitioners must also manage therapeutic activities that will teach patients about functional living skills.
Even though a few skill sets overlap between vocational rehabilitation counselors and mental health practitioners, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a vocational rehabilitation counselor might have more use for skills like "transferable," "plan development," "vocational assessments," and "vocational rehabilitation." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of mental health practitioners require skills like "patients," "family therapy," "in-home," and "autism. "
The non profits industry tends to pay the highest salaries for mental health practitioners, with average annual pay of $55,825. Comparatively, the highest vocational rehabilitation counselor annual salary comes from the non profits industry.The average resume of mental health practitioners showed that they earn lower levels of education compared to vocational rehabilitation counselors. So much so that theyacirc;euro;trade;re 5.1% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 0.8%.Types of vocational rehabilitation counselor
Updated January 8, 2025
