Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Vocational Rehabilitation

The Oregon Office of Vocational Rehabilitation Services (OVRS) has adopted the “Enhancing Employment Outcomes” model of services. This project trains staff to recognize and target services based on level of customer preparation for employment, and to provide enhanced job-development services. Customer preparation is based on the concept of motivational intervention (MI). The MI approach assists customers with examining and resolving their ambivalence about employment.

The Wisconsin Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) has been in an Order of Selection since 1994. Developed by a former deputy administrator in 2006, DVR uses a projection tool to effectively manage fiscal and staffing resources to ensure priority-service delivery for individuals with the most significant disabilities (MSD), while also engaging customers with less significant disabilities who are on a waitlist. Using this tool has helped the agency to meet its performance goals and to increase its rehabilitation rate for customers with MSD.

The Florida Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) implemented an Order of Selection (OOS) in 2008 due to insufficient resources to serve all eligible customers. The agency had a long waitlist and a backlog of customers waiting to be seen by counselors for employment planning. In response to this situation, DVR used American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds to establish a call center in 2009, hiring hourly, non-benefitted staff to contact customers on the waitlist.

In Fiscal Year 2001, the Washington Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) did not have adequate funds to serve all eligible customers, and was required to implement an Order of Selection (OOS) policy.

In February 2009, the Maine Division of Vocational Rehabilitation began to closely examine all agency practices. The purpose was to identify and address inefficiencies with the goal of eliminating the waitlist that had been in place since 2001 and moving out of an Order of Selection policy. To implement this effort, called the No Queue For You (NOQ4U) project, the agency formed a steering committee and assigned each member a focus area of the vocational rehabilitation (VR) process, including entering the program, developing and accomplishing an employment plan, and exiting the program.

VR-RRTC researchers conducted case-study research to identify: how state VR agencies effectively manage outreach, service access, and case flow to ensure that individuals with MSD are served on priority basis; what practices they use, and what evidence exists for their effectiveness; and how to make them easily transferable to other states given the variation in how states are organized.