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Employment First: The Role of Informed
Choice
Dr. Joan KesterGeorge Washington University
Mid-Atlantic Technical Assistance & Continuing
Education Center
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INFORMED Choice
Today we’re going to explore the important role of informed choice…
What does it mean?How do we apply it in everyday practice?
How do we turn challenges into opportunities?
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Activity: How Does INFORMED Choice Feel in your Life?
Instructions:Pair up with another person you don’t know well.
Take several minutes to share stories about 2 kinds of situations you may have experienced in your life.
• When you did not feel “informed” when making a choice or decision…What happened, how did you feel, and what information did you need?
• When you felt “informed” in making a choice or decision…What happened, how did you feel, and what information did you have?
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INFORMED Choice
What does it mean?
INFORMED Choice
There is a great deal of conversation about INFORMED choice in the Employment First initiative across the country. Today we are going to delve deeper into the meaning. While we focus on the definition in the Rehabilitation Act, it aligns with the philosophy of Employment First. As we explore the meaning, you will find it is impossible to argue with what is stated in the law.
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…an ongoing process where the individual and professional work together to gather and evaluate information that will be utilized by the individual to make informed choices about goals and services that will lead to an employment outcome. (Rehab Act)
What IS INFORMED Choice?
Guiding Principles of Informed Choice in the Law
All of these principles act as the foundation of INFORMED choice:
• Respect for individual dignity• Personal responsibility• Self-determination• Pursuit of meaningful careers
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Getting on the Same Page: Shared Meaning
As the VA Employment First efforts move forward, it is important for us to get on the same page and develop a shared meaning of these principles.
Our next activity provides an opportunity to do just that!
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Activity: Shared Meaning of Principles of INFORMED Choice
Instructions:• You will work as groups at your tables. Take 10
minutes to discuss the meaning of these principles in your work, noting similarities and differences.• Respect for individual dignity• Personal responsibility• Self-determination• Pursuit of meaningful careers
• Short full group debrief
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Beyond our SHARED Meaning
Let’s take a look at the national trends and perspectives…
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National Trends & Perspectives: Advocacy,
Individual, & Systems
The Focus on Employment First, Competitive Integrated
Employment, and Informed Choice
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An ADVOCACY Perspective:
“Segregated & Exploited: A Call to Action”
The failure of the Disability Service System to Provide Quality Work
2011 Report by the National Disability Rights Network
http://www.napas.org/images/Documents/Resources/Publications/Reports/Segregated-and-Exploited.pdf
From an ADVOCACY Perspective…
“Historically, society has tended to isolate and segregate individuals with disabilities, and, despite some improvements, such forms of discrimination against individuals with disabilities continue to be a serious and pervasive social problem” (p. 10)
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People with Disabilities CAN Work!
The truth is that people with disabilities can—and do—work in all areas of the American workforce. They thrive when they fully participate in their communities, and in turn, the nation thrives.
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Findings of the NDRN• Segregated work, sheltered
environments, and sub-minimum wage directly contradict National policy
• Work segregation of people with disabilities is damaging
• Sub-minimum wages reinforce a life of poverty for people with disabilities
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An INDIVIDUAL Perspective:
The Quest for Ordinary Lives
The Integrated Post-School Vocational Functioning of 50 Workers with
Disabilities
Brown, L. Shiraga, P. & Keessler, K., (2006)
Purpose of the Study
Affirm validity and feasibility of integrated vocational functioning – what was and is operational, opportunities for and improvements in integrated settings
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From an INDIVIDUAL Perspective…
If You are an Individual with a Significant Disability…Where should you be? With whom should they
be with? What should they be doing?“Individuals without disabilities doing what they do
because an integrated life is inherently better than one that is segregated. We must do all that is reasonable to prevent anyone from experiencing lives that are segregated, nonproductive, sterile, unnecessarily dependent, and costly. Conversely, we must do alt that is reasonable to prepare and arrange for all citizens to live, work, and play enjoyably and productively in a safe, stimulating, and diverse integrated society” (p. 120).
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A SYSTEMS Perspective:
Initiatives to Advance Integrated Employment
National, State & Local Efforts
From a SYSTEMS Perspective…Integrated, Competitive Employment: A
Priority
• Advocates & advocacy organizations• Vocational Rehabilitation• APSE• National Employment First Initiative
Shifts in values, principles, legislation, policy & funding priorities.
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INFORMED Choice
How do we apply it in everyday practice?
The appropriate mode of communication should be used to ensure each individual receives information concerning the availability and scope of informed choice, the manner in which it may be exercised, and the availability of support services for individuals with cognitive or other disabilities who require assistance in exercising informed choice. (Rehab Act)
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A Few Words are NOT Enough…
Importance of KNOWING how EACH Consumer Learns
As with every one of us, we learn best through different modes of communication. This requires us to discover many factors, such as learning styles.
Can you share a few examples of how you ensured your consumers learned about choices and options?
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The Act requires that applicants and eligible individuals and their representatives, are provided information and support services to assist them in exercising informed choice throughout the employment process(section 101(a)(19) of the Act)
INFORMED Choice: An Ongoing Process
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•During assessment for determining eligibility and vocational rehabilitation needs
•During the selection of employment outcomes
•During selection of services needed to achieve the outcomes
According to the law, this includes…
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Information about services and service providers that must be provided to include:
•Cost •Accessibility •Duration
•Types •Degree of service integration•Qualifications of providers
•Information about consumer satisfaction with those services (to the extent information is available) (Rehab Act)
Information about Services & Service Providers
Activity: Applying INFORMED Choice through Information about Services &
Service ProvidersInstructions:• Pair up with 2 other people you don’t know well.• For the next several minutes, discuss this question:• In your current practice, how do you
current provide information about service and service providers on an ongoing basis. If you are not currently providing this information, how can you overcome barriers to carrying out this important part of informed choice?
• Full group discussion
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Should facilitate the decision making process that allows the consumer to analyze relevant information in order to select the following:
1. Vocational Goal2. Intermediate Objectives
3. Employment Services
4. Employment Service Providers
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Throughout the Employment Process
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•Review
•Evaluate
•Coordinate
•Monitor
After Employment Plans are Developed, INFORMED Choice
calls for…
Activity: How do you Manage Agency Biases?
Instructions:At your tables, discuss the following scenario for
the next several minutes:You work for an Employment Service
Organization. You want to ensure you provide every opportunity for consumers to exercise INFORMED choice. However, you are torn because your organization’s funding may be jeopardized if the consumer selects options outside your program. How might you handle this situation.
Full group discussion.
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•Owns decisions related to the employment outcome, services, providers, & procurement methods
•Has access to or develops information enough to weigh the possible values & consequences of
various choices•Has a range of options from which to choose or appropriate new options are created
Informed Choice Ensures Individuals…
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•Learns decision making skills (how to gather and evaluate information; ways of making decisions) •Makes decisions that are
important for the individual
•Takes personal responsibility for implementing choices
•Has decision making power and personal control leading to responsibility and
accountability
INFORMED Choice ensures the individual…
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•Strengths
•Capabilities
•Abilities
•Interests
•Priorities
•Resources
Promoting Self-Understanding & Awareness
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If I tell you I am interested in running for President,
what would you do??
How would you help me develop self-
understanding & awareness?
It Happens in the Context of the Career Development
ProcessLifelong processAddresses all aspects of life within
career contextsPeople come to understand
themselvesCyclic Process:– Career Awareness– Career Exploration– Career Preparation– Career Assimilation
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Assess within a Career Development Context
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Career Development as a Context for Assessment
Career Development checklists may assist you with providing a starting
point for ascertaining what phase consumers are in and the types of discovery that may assist a them
development.
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Career Awareness
• Can say why people work.• Can say why they want to work.• Can say what work means.• Can identify other family members’ and
friends’ jobs and what they do.• Can name and describe different
occupations.• Can discuss what happens if adults cannot
or do not work.• Can identify why people have to get along
with each other at work.
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Career Exploration• Can state preferences for indoor vs. outdoor
work, solitary work vs. working with others, and working with their hands and tools/machines versus working strictly with their minds.
• Can identify their strengths, abilities, skills, learning styles, and special needs regarding work or specific jobs.
• Can state what they want in a job.• Can identify the steps in finding a job.• Can identify at least three careers they want to
explore.39
Career Preparation
• Can describe the educational and work requirements of specific career and jobs.
• Can identify where education and training can be obtained.
• Can explain steps in acquiring the skills necessary to enter a chosen field or job.
• Can describe entry level skills, course or job requirements, and exit level competencies to succeed in courses.
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Career Assimilation
• Can identify steps to take if they want to advance in their place of employment.
• Can identify educational benefits and ways of gaining additional training through their employment.
• Can explain fields that are related to their current work in which they could transfer.
• Can identify ways to change jobs without losing benefits or salary.
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Triangulation of Methods and Information: Just because a consumers
says he/she is interested is not enough….
Current
Relevant
Valid
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Environment
ObservationsInterviewsLMITask AnalysisTraining AnalysisCommunity Resource SurveyCommunity Mapping
Congruence
Behavioral ObservationAssistive TechnologySituational AssessmentOJEOJTVocational ProfilingFollow-up Generalized Skill Assessment
Individual
ObservationsBackground InformationInterviewsPsychometric TestingWork SamplesWork TasksTransferable Skill AssessmentScreening
Who Can Provide this Data?• Rehabilitation counselors & professionals• Employment service organizations• Employers or service learning supervisors• Employment specialists• Vocational Evaluators/Assessment Specialists• Parents and family members• Consumer: Person with a disability• Others who have relevant experience, vested
interest in the consumer, and have received some type of orientation or training.
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INFORMED Choice
How do we turn challenges into opportunities?
Activity: Overcoming Challenges to Applying
INFORMED ChoiceInstructions:• At your tables use flipchart paper,
creating 2 columns: • BARRIERS ----- OPPORTUNITIES• Identify barriers you may face in
applying INFORMED Choice in your Employment First efforts.
• For every barrier – identify opportunities to overcome the barriers.
• Group report-outs.
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…an ongoing process where the individual and the counselor work together to gather and evaluate information that will be utilized by the individual to make informed choices about goals and services that will lead to an employment outcome. (Rehab Act)
In Summary: What IS INFORMED Choice?
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Informed Choice
Joan Kester, Ed.D, CRCThe George Washington UniversityMid-Atlantic Technical Assistance & Continuing Education [email protected] www.gwcrcre.org
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Contact Information
