Psychiatric rehabilitation training needs of state vocational rehabilitation counselors: a preliminary study

Journal of Rehabilitation, July-Sept, 2005 by Gloria K. Lee, Julie Chronister, Hector Tsang, Kirby Ingraham, Eugene Oulvey

The purpose of this study, therefore, is to shed light on the training needs of state VR counselors in a mid-western state, who work predominantly with clients with psychiatric disabilities so as help identify and facilitate an effective in-service training model for those VR counselors working with clients with mental health issues. Ultimately, further evidence from continuous larger-scale research studies would help providing guidelines for education and in-service training for rehabilitation students and practitioners.

Method

Participants

Forty-eight counselors carrying predominantly psychiatric caseloads from a state VR agency in the midwest were recruited for this study. These counselors were participants of two in-service training workshops in psychiatric rehabilitation conducted by the fourth and fifth authors of the paper, who were, at the time of the study, mental health coordinators in the Illinois Office of Rehabilitation Services. Participants included 29 females (60.4%) and 19 males (39.6%) with M=9.08 (SD=8.69) years of state VR experience and M=3.07 years (SD=3.6) of experience with psychiatric caseloads. The mean age of the participants was M=47.73 (SD=7.92). The majority of the respondents identified themselves as European Americans (n=30. 62.5%); the remainder of the sample included: African Americans (n=8, 16.7%), Latina/o (n=4. 8.3%), Native Americans (n=12, 2.1%), others (n=2, 4.2%) and missing information (n=3, 6.3%).

Of the 48 participants, 4.2% obtained a bachelor degree, 93.8% obtained a master's degree and 2.1% obtained a doctorate degree. In terms of specialty of their education training, 31.3% acquired a general area of counseling practice, 43.8% acquired a psychiatric rehabilitation specialization (PRS), 10.4% obtained both a general and a PRS specialty while 14.6% did not respond. In terms of the types of certification obtained, 10.4% obtained a licensed professional counseling (LPC), 6.3% obtained a certified rehabilitation counseling (CRC), 10.4% obtained a licensed social work. About 6.3% obtained both a LPC and CRC. Another 6.3% obtained other types of certification while 60.4%, of the information regarding certification was missing.

Instruments

A survey instrument was developed based on a comprehensive review of the psychiatric rehabilitation literature, an examination of the Commission on Certification of Rehabilitation Counselors (CRCC) Knowledge Validation Inventory-Revised (KVI-R) (Leahy, Chan, & Saunderss, 2003), interviews with selected VR counselors with a psychiatric rehabilitation specialization, and input from the fourth author of the present study, who at the time of the study was one of the two mental health coordinators in the Illinois Office of Rehabilitation Services. The inventory is composed of 70 items. The first section of the survey is comprised of 35 knowledge importance items; each item is rated based on a 5-point Likert scale: 0=not important; 1=somewhat important; 2=important; 3=very important; and 4=extremely important; The second section of the survey is comprised of identical items. Instead of importance, participants were asked to rate the items in terms of their perceived preparedness in the knowledge area indicated by the item. Each item is again rated based on a 5-point Likert scale: 0=no preparation; 1-little preparation; 2=moderate preparation; 3=high degree of preparation; and 4=very high degree of preparation. Psychiatric rehabilitation training needs of the participants were determined by comparing the ratings of knowledge items they considered important (with ratings of 3=very important and ratings of 4=extremely important) with the ratings of items they reported to be less than adequately prepared (with ratings of 0=no preparation, 1-little preparation and 2=moderate preparation) (Berven, 1979).