Vocational Rehabilitation Library Toolkit

Impaired functioning in occupational domains is a diagnostic characteristic of posttraumatic stress disorder, and yet the interactions between trauma and career remain understudied. This study examined the relationships between trauma symptoms, posttraumatic growth, and career adaptability in college students who identified as trauma survivors (N = 215). Results indicated that (a) trauma symptoms and posttraumatic growth were both significantly predictive of career adaptability and (b) posttraumatic growth moderated the relationship between trauma and career adaptability. The impact of demographic factors and implications for career counselors and counselor educators are also discussed.

Children and adolescents who are exposed to traumatic events are helped by numerous child-serving agencies, including health, mental health, education, child welfare, first responder, and criminal justice systems to assist them in their recovery. Service providers need to incorporate a trauma-informed perspective in their practices to enhance the quality of care for these children. This includes making sure that children and adolescents are screened for trauma exposure; that service providers use evidence-informed practices; that resources on trauma are available to providers, survivors, and their families; and that there is a continuity of care across service systems. This article reviews how traumatic stress impacts children and adolescents' daily functioning and how various service systems approach trauma services differently. It also provides recommendations for how to make each of these service systems more trauma informed and an appendix detailing resources in the National Child Traumatic Stress Network that have been produced to meet this objective.

Background: Visual impairment following traumatic brain injury (TBI) is common, but little research has been conducted regarding employment outcomes for individuals with combined TBI and visual impairment.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine whether service-related factors, including vocational rehabilitation (VR) agency service strategies, and consumer personal characteristics are associated with competitive employment and job quality for this population.
Method: Rehabilitation Services Administration Case Service Report data from fiscal years 2013–2015 was combined with VR agency interview data about strategies utilized for providing services to these consumers. Multilevel modeling was used to determine the predictive ability of nine state/agency-level and 27 individual-level variables.
Results: Two service strategies were significantly associated with competitive employment: “staff with dual expertise” and “staff training on TBI.” Service strategies were not associated with job quality. Ten individual-level factors were significantly associated with competitive employment and eight were significantly associated with job quality.
Conclusions: Having staff with dual expertise in TBI and visual impairment was a strong predictor of competitive employment; educating staff about TBI was also important. VR agencies are encouraged to educate their staff who work with consumers with visual impairment about TBI, including developing expertise in one or more staff members.

The Adverse Childhood Experiences study (Felitti et al., 1998) showed that early adversity can have a profound lifelong effect on personal development, social relationships, coping methods, and career trajectories. The authors review critical findings related to trauma‐informed counseling practices, discuss literature linking trauma and career theories, and consider how career counseling could address the effects of adverse childhood experiences using trauma‐informed practices. An integration of trauma‐informed practices with career counseling using narrative and other approaches is proposed. The proposed integration holds implications for incorporating trauma‐informed practice in career counselor preparation programs and in career counseling practice.

Trauma-informed intervention has broad application in the field of human services. This article examines how violence, poverty, veteran status, and historical trauma can impact career development as well as employment opportunities across the lifespan for clients and human service professionals in a variety of settings. Trauma-informed career counseling is discussed as a perspective in assisting clients around employment needs. Trauma-informed strategies and interventions are offered to address how to best identify, increase awareness of, and foster the growth of healthy career development for clients who may have a history of trauma, while also being mindful of addressing the potential for vicarious trauma in human services professionals.

Background: Individuals with disabilities are more likely to have experienced trauma over the course of the lifespan, however, these experiences and their impact on individual functioning have yet to be fully recognized within rehabilitation counseling practice, research, and education.
Objective: The following manuscript outlines trauma-informed principles related to rehabilitation service provision.
Methods: An overview of relevant theories that may be unfamiliar to rehabilitation professionals is included, as well as recommended assessment tools for use in practice and research.
Conclusions: By employing specific tenants of trauma-informed care, infused with traditional rehabilitation practice, rehabilitation counselors are in a unique position to comprehensively address consumers' needs and ultimately foster more constructive outcomes.