Will “Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist” be Automated?

Core Skills & Abilities

• Test and evaluate patients' physical and mental abilities and analyze medical data to determine realistic rehabilitation goals for patients.

• Plan and implement programs and social activities to help patients learn work or school skills and adjust to handicaps.

• Conduct research in occupational therapy.

• Select activities that will help individuals learn work and life-management skills within limits of their mental or physical capabilities.

• Consult with rehabilitation team to select activity programs or coordinate occupational therapy with other therapeutic activities.

• Help clients improve decision making, abstract reasoning, memory, sequencing, coordination, and perceptual skills, using computer programs.

• Evaluate patients' progress and prepare reports that detail progress.

• Provide training and supervision in therapy techniques and objectives for students or nurses and other medical staff.

• Recommend changes in patients' work or living environments, consistent with their needs and capabilities.

• Complete and maintain necessary records.

• Provide patients with assistance in locating or holding jobs.

• Lay out materials such as puzzles, scissors and eating utensils for use in therapy, and clean and repair these tools after therapy sessions.

• Develop and participate in health promotion programs, group activities, or discussions to promote client health, facilitate social adjustment, alleviate stress, and prevent physical or mental disability.

• Train caregivers in providing for the needs of a patient during and after therapy.

• Design and create, or requisition, special supplies and equipment, such as splints, braces, and computer-aided adaptive equipment.

• Plan, organize, and conduct occupational therapy programs in hospital, institutional, or community settings to help rehabilitate persons with disabilities because of illness, injury or psychological or developmental problems.

• Advise on health risks in the workplace or on health-related transition to retirement.