Careers in rehabilitation with an undergraduate degree in rehabilitation - includes list of programs offering major or minor in rehabilitation

American Rehabilitation, Spring, 1993 by Tom Evenson, Celia Williamson

Graduate Study. Because the professional degree in the field of human services is the master's degree, many students use the baccalaureate in rehabilitation as a bridge to their ultimate professional goals. While rehabilitation counseling is the most common professional specialization selected by undergraduate majors, many students pursue graduate work in the rehabilitation specialties of vocational evaluation, work adjustment, rehabilitation administration, job replacement, and supported employment. Other students use the undergraduate rehabilitation degree as a foundation for graduate study in ancillary professional areas. It is not uncommon, for example, for students to pursue graduate degrees in social work, physical therapy, occupational therapy, psychology, special education, counseling and guidance, public administration, or business. Students find that their undergraduate training in rehabilitation services provides them with important dimensions that significantly broaden their ability to work with people in almost any type of human service area.

Graduates of bachelor's degree programs may be the best spokespersons for the relevance of the degree to their own careers.

The following is narrative by a 1978 graduate of the undergraduate program at the Center for Rehabilitation:

"I began work on the Monday after graduation as an Extended Rehabilitation Services Counselor at a local Goodwill. The supervisor stated that she hired me because my degree was perfect for the job. She was particularly impressed that I knew how to write Individual Program Plans, understood different types of disabilities, and knew basic behavior analysis techniques. Within 1 year I became the coordinator of the program.

"I was later recruited by the local Association for Retarded Citizens to establish a work-activity center for their clients, then moved to the MHMR center where a new psychosocial rehabilitation program was being developed. Persons interviewing me stated my knowledge of rehabilitation principles, individual treatment planning processes, structured learning theory, and behavior analysis convinced them to hire me. They were impressed with rehabilitation's focus on the wellness rather than the illness of the individual, a philosophy they endorsed. I was promoted to coordinator of the program within 5 months. With 2 years I was promoted again, to residential coordinator, while maintaining my responsibilities with the psychosocial rehabilitation program. Two years after that, I was promoted to the position of director of mental health services. At this point, I still had only my bachelor's degree, but had entered into a master's program.

"What I liked most about the undergraduate rehabilitation program was it's applied components. The program taught me how to make decisions and problem solve, as well as how to carry out specific interventions. I learned how to write a task analysis, how to write and implement training plans, and how to manage a caseload. These specific skills were given foundation and context through an indoctrination into the theories and philosophy behind rehabilitation. This mix of practical and philosophical information is critical, because, as the old saying goes, the answers are not in the back of the book. In the complex world of human service delivery, you need to know what to do, how to do it, and in order to innovate, you need to know why it is being done at all."