This idiographic study explored the value of six vocational interest types (realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising and conventional) for guiding a person's occupational choices. To that end, five rehabilitation clients who attended for vocational assessment following a personal injury (e.g., motor vehicle or general accident or work injury) reported on their vocational interests. Participants indicated their preferences (like or dislike) for 77 occupations. Altogether, they made from 5 to 27 choices. A profiling procedure indicated that clients reported more occupational dislikes rather than likes. Of the vocational interest types the choices in realistic, investigative, artistic and enterprising domains were endorsed more than those in social or conventional domains. It was not clear that the six vocational interest types determined occupational choice following an injury. Instead, occupational dislikes may provide more useful data for vocational counselling.

This study explored family relationship dynamics of men with Adult Onset Epileptic Seizures (AOES) following an elective lobectomy procedure to address their frequent seizure activity. Informants were five Australian men with history of adult-onset epilepsy for which they received neurosurgery (aged 34–59 years). Thematic analysis following semi-structured interviews yielded three themes: role marginalization, role dependency and role enmeshment. All the men reported significant role marginalization in not being consulted about everyday life activities. They also reported to experience decisional role shifting towards their spouses or partners and children post-surgery. Their family role enmeshment experiences included being perceived by spouses or partners as adult–children and by their children as a parent–child. However, some of the men were accepting of these role definitions and to add rather than take away from their health-related quality of life.

Accurate measures of changes in workplace attitudes toward people with disabilities are required to determine whether employee training and other interventions are effective. This critical systematic review searched Medline, PsycInfo, Google Scholar, Cinahl, and Cochrane Collaboration for suitable instruments published between 2005 and 2015, and for those published earlier if still indicated to be in active use. In total, 13 scans were conducted. Inclusion criteria included wildcard and free text variations of workplace attitudes, adults with disabilities, and competitive employment. In total, 9 of 49 studies were selected for review. Data from each of these were categorized through the PICO model (Population, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome), mapped within a PRISMA flow chart, and analyzed through an 18-point weight of evidence framework for empirical quality, relevance, and evidence of theoretical validity. Weight of evidence scores for empirical quality ranged from 10 to 16 out of a possible score of 18. None of the studies provided an explicit evidence of theoretical validity. Measures of responsiveness to change in workplace attitudes appear less well validated than those for single timeframes.

This study identified situations where communication was a barrier to employment for adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Informant interviewees were six college graduates with ASD who have been employed for one year. Following the qualitative inductive analysis, five communication-related themes emerged: (1) job interviewing success, (2) negotiating co-worker interactions, (3) supervisory interactions, instruction, and feedback, (4) handling customer intercommunication, and (5) communication-oriented coping strategies. Participants were relatively more successful in communication coping strategies and supervisory interaction compared to difficulties with job interviewing and co-worker interactions. Vocational rehabilitation counsellors assisting clients with ASD should prioritize job interview communication skills and social skill education specific to appropriate interactions with co-workers and supervisors utilizing role play, social skill training, and job coaching.

The study explored the lived experiences of people with injury events in their residential environment. Participants were 65 people with disabilities and chronic diseases in Sweden with residential living injuries (females = 40 (61.5%), men = 25 (38.5%), age range 20–90 year old). They completed qualitative interviews on their experiences of injury events in their residential environment. Thematic analysis of the data yielded evidence to suggest the following issues: (1) individual coping resource preferences; (2) support services; and (3) family engagement needs. Participants coped utilizing positive reframing of their living with injury and the incidents they experienced. Social support functions were important for safety in the housing environment. Rather disconcerting is the fact that participants would not always tell their social network about the risks and injuries they experienced.

The main objective of this study was to investigate the relationships between motivation and readiness levels for physical activity and exercise behaviour among persons with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Participants were 211 U.S. adults with chronic musculoskeletal pain from online support groups as well as specialty and primary care clinics (females = 86.7%; mean age = 43.4 years, SD = 14.4 years). The participants completed an online survey on their engagement in physical activity and exercise behaviour. Multiple one-way analyses of variance with post-hoc comparisons using the Tukey HSD test revealed significant differences between the readiness stages of change groups of preintenders, intenders, and actors in their motivation for physical activity and exercise behaviour. Specifically, the actor group of behavioural change reported higher levels of motivation beliefs for physical activity and exercise behaviour compared to preintenders and intenders. These findings suggest that people with chronic musculoskeletal pain experiencing increased motivation for physical activity and exercise behaviour are more engaged in desired behaviours than the persons with chronic pain reporting varying degrees of behavioural intentions.

We provide a comparative case study of rehabilitation counselling across the U.S., Japan and Taiwan focusing on the common challenges facing international constituents in the field. Through interviews with students, faculty and administrators from each of the respective countries, we use thematic coding analysis to identify key points of tension. Emergent themes comprise (a) systemic challenges, (b) student and faculty mobility, (c) cultural and linguistic differences and (d) lack of sustainable international leadership. We further discuss mitigation of these recurrent challenges and conclude collaborative research, student exchange and institutional partnerships may advance teaching, research and service scholarship of rehabilitation counselling programs, and, in turn, enhance the lives of people with chronic illness and disability worldwide.

The purpose of this study was to validate the Vocational Rehabilitation-Service-Related Stress Scale (VRSS) with a sample of 429 vocational rehabilitation (VR) service personnel in Japan. Exploratory factor analysis was employed to determine the structure of the VRSS, and confirmatory factor analysis showed that the four-factor model had a good model fit. The internal consistency reliability of the VRSS, as measured by Cronbach's alpha, was .90. Results indicated that the VRSS is a valid and reliable measure that can be used to examine occupational stress in VR personnel. Work-related stress and quality assurance issues that pertain to the delivery of VR services are discussed.