An Investigation of Selected Factors Correlating To Vocational Rehabilitation Outcomes

Abstract

There was limited information regarding the number of disability related impairments, length of case management, number of counselors who served an individual consumer, and counselor qualifications (including level of education, Certified Rehabilitation Counselor, the length of employment in years, and assignment as a general/specialty caseload) and their impact on vocational rehabilitation outcomes. The purpose of this research was to investigate selected factors (described above) that might be associated with state-federal vocational rehabilitation outcomes. On this basis, there were four research questions developed.The study sample was 171 vocational rehabilitation counselors with Arizona Rehabilitation Services Administration and 215 most significant/significant disabled consumers. These 215 disabled consumers were either closed successful or unsuccessful from March 1, 2002 through February 28, 2003. The dependent variable was the vocational rehabilitation closure. There were two levels (1) successful employment closure in Status 26 and (2) unsuccessful closure, after an Individual Plan for Employment was implemented but not completed, in Status 28. Seven predictor variables were tested at an alpha level of .05. Each predictor variable was non-significant with an analysis of variance (ANOVA). Future research may help identify additional consumer and counselor factors that have an impact on vocational rehabilitation outcomes.