Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling Commons^™

From War To Home: The Systematic Issues Operation Enduring And Iraqi Freedom Veterans Face Transitioning With Ptsd, Tiffany D. Ware

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the perceptions of Operation Enduring and Iraqi Freedom veterans with PTSD, who are transitioning from active duty to civilian life, regarding their participation in the Disabled Transition Assistance Program.

Methodology: The methodology for this research study will be qualitative from a phenomenological perspective. When thinking of research as it pertains to qualitative methods, it is appropriate to use when a researcher is trying to study the lived experiences of individuals (Flipp, 2014; Patton, 2015). This method will describe perceptions of Operation Enduring and Iraqi Freedom veterans with PTSD, who are …

Service Provider Promising Practice: Flexible Scheduling And Creative Staffing - Kfi’S Support Solutions, Heike Boeltzig, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

ThinkWork! Publications

Headquartered in a small rural town in northern Maine, Katahdin Friends, Inc. (KFI) provides community employment and life engagement supports, as well as home supports, to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). KFI’s services extend throughout northern and southern Maine, including the cities of Portland and Bangor. A flexible approach to staffing and support scheduling helps KFI ensure customized daily support schedules that meet individual goals. This approach also allows individuals to interact with a variety of direct support professionals, which is important for having a more engaged and meaningful life in the community. As of July 2016, KFI …

Service Provider Promising Practice: Braiding Community Employment And Life Engagement Services - Transcen’S Worklink Program, Heike Boeltzig, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

ThinkWork! Publications

WorkLink is a program that braids community employment and life engagement services. The goal is to enable individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) to work while receiving wrap-around day supports, as needed. Started in 1996, WorkLink is a program of TransCen, Inc. and is based in San Francisco. WorkLink clients do not have to give up day supports when deciding to pursue work. In addition to helping individuals establish and maintain meaningful community relationships, day supports are used to discover and explore vocational goals and job options. This information then helps guide individuals’ employment planning process. At WorkLink clients …

Service Provider Promising Practice: Avenues Supported Living Services: A Staffing Approach Based On Client Relationships, Heike Boeltzig, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

ThinkWork! Publications

Avenues Supported Living Services of Valencia, California was founded in 1997 by a husband- andwife team, Scott and Lori Shepard. The agency provides supported living and community life engagement (CLE) services to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Key to Avenues’ success is a staffing approach that is grounded in client relationships. The agency limits staff hours to two shifts per week with the same individual. This is done to facilitate clientstaff matching and relationship building, but also to prevent potential burnout and frustration by ensuring both the clients they support and their staff have variety in their schedules. …

Service Provider Promising Practice - Transcen’S Worklink Program: Helping Individuals Gain Work Skills Through Targeted Volunteering And Other Community Life Engagement Activities, Heike Boeltzig, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

ThinkWork! Publications

WorkLink is a program that enables individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) to work while receiving wrap-around day services. Having access to both types of supports -- community employment and Community Life Engagement (CLE) -- is particularly important for individuals with significant IDD, who often work fewer hours and need additional support to lead active and meaningful lives. The program was started in 1996 by TransCen, Inc., and is based in San Francisco, California. Day services not only help individuals establish and maintain meaningful community relationships, but also let them build important skills as they explore vocational goals and …

Strategies To Improve Interdisciplinary Communication In An Acute Care Inpatient Pediatric Unit, Sarah Thompson, Haley Pelletier, Barbara Bush Children's Hospital-Inpatient, Maine Medical Center, Suneela Nayak, Ruth Hanselman, Stephen Tyzik

MaineHealth Maine Medical Center

Interdisciplinary patient rounding has been shown to improve patient and family satisfaction as well as reduce patient length of stay and readmission rates. In an acute care inpatient pediatric unit, baseline metrics demonstrated that 100% of the time, nursing was not included in these rounds thus resulting in sub optimal communication.

The goal of this performance improvement project was to attain increased nursing participation. Data collection demonstrated several reasons for lack of participation and corrective actions were instituted. After undertaking this KPI goal and utilizing operational excellence, 95% of the time, nurses were called to morning rounds with the medical …

Supported Employment For Veterans With Traumatic Brain Injury: Provider Perspectives, Terri K. Pogoda, Kathleen F. Carlson, Katelyn E. Gormley, Sandra Resnick

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Objective: In 2006, 13 sites were provided with one-time pilot funding to provide supported employment (SE) to Veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI) history. In 2014, we surveyed SE providers at pilot and non-pilot sites that did not receive this funding. Our objectives were to identify any pilot and non-pilot site differences regarding current: (1) provision of SE to Veterans with TBI; (2) staffing and communication between the SE and polytrauma/TBI teams; and (3) provider perceptions on facilitators and barriers to providing, and suggestions for improving, SE.

Design: Mixed methods cross-sectional survey study.

Participants: Providers included a …

Ten Elements Of Organizational Transformation: Strategies For Moving Towards Integrated Employment, Jaimie Ciulla Timmons, John Butterworth, Jonathan Lucus, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

This session will share ten key organizational characteristics necessary to strengthen competitive integrated employment outcomes. Get a first-hand look at the RRTC’s Organizational Transformation Toolkit and explore our Provider Employment Leadership Network, a yearlong facilitated Community of Practice of provider leaders in employment. In conjunction with The Arc of the United States, this PowerPoint offers ten essential elements necessary for successful organizational transformation, along with strategies for implementing each element.

Service Provider Promising Practice: Using Mobile Communication Technology At Seec, Oliver Lyons, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

ThinkWork! Publications

SEEC (Seeking Equality, Empowerment, and Community) is a Maryland-based provider of employment, community living, and community development supports to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Originally established in 1987, SEEC started converting from facility-based to exclusively community-based supports in 2005, and closed down its center-based program completely in 2009. Currently, all of SEEC’s supports are individualized and community-based, in keeping with the organization’s mission “to support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to direct their lives with dignity, choice, authority, and responsibility.” SEEC provides supports to over 200 people with IDD throughout Montgomery County and the District of Columbia. …

Service Provider Promising Practice: Using Staff Networks To Build Community Membership At Loqw, Oliver Lyons, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

ThinkWork! Publications

LOQW (Learning Opportunities/Quality Works) is a community skills training, service coordination, and employment services provider in northeast Missouri. LOQW employs over 100 people and serves 14 counties in northeast Missouri and 600 customers annually. Their mission is to “positively impact the lives of individuals through support, advocacy and connection to resources.” LOQW operates several satellite offices in addition to its main office in Monroe City, MO. One of these satellite offices is located in Hannibal, MO, a city with a population of less than 18,000. For comparison, Busch Stadium in nearby St. Louis can hold over twice that amount of …

Social Support In Collegiate Athletics: An Evaluation Of The Efficacy Of Perceived Social Support Among Injured College Athletes And Its Effect Upon Well-Being Throughout The Rehabilitation Process, Gabriella Bores

Selected Honors Theses

Athletic injuries are increasingly common at the collegiate level. These injuries not only produce physical detriments, but often elicit emotional responses as well. As a result, injured athletes are often facing increased stress and are in dire need of social support throughout the rehabilitation process. This study seeks to add to the amassing literature on the stress-buffer hypothesis and evaluates social support provided by athletic trainers, coaches, teammates, and professors and instructors for injured collegiate athletes. Qualitative findings revealed the most commonly expressed type of social support was emotional support from coaches, teammates, and professors, while tangible support was the …

Proactive Personality And Voluntary Turnover: The Moderating Effects Of Development And Perceived Career Opportunities, Amy F. Huber

Theses and Dissertations

The present thesis reports the research and quantitative examination of the relation

between proactive personality and voluntary turnover, as well as the moderating influences of participation in development activities and perceptions of available career opportunities. Zero- order correlations and moderated binary logistic regression are used to test the hypotheses within an archival data set of 295 participations from a multinational European organization. A significant correlation was found between proactive personality and participation in developmental activities. Additionally, participation in developmental activities was found to be a negative predictor of voluntary turnover. Results of the moderated logistic regression analysis showed that both …

Guidepost 1: Individualize Supports For Each Person, Hannah Curren, Oliver Lyons, Jaimie Ciulla Timmons, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

ThinkWork! Publications

Community Life Engagement refers to how people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) access and participate in their communities outside of employment as part of a meaningful day. (See “What Is Community Life Engagement?” in the box on page 3.) The Community Life Engagement team has been conducting research to identify the elements of high-quality Community Life Engagement (CLE) supports. We have created a series of four Engage Briefs to examine the guideposts in detail.

Lessons From The Field: Kinship As An Intervention (Library Resources), Holy Cross Libraries

Library Resources for Campus Events

A bibliography of resources available through the Holy Cross Libraries which provide additional information related to “Lessons from the Field: Kinship as an Intervention,” a lecture by Rev. Gregory Boyle, S.J., founder and executive director of Homeboy Industries, held at the College of the Holy Cross on February 6, 2017.

Homeboy Industries is the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation and re-entry program in the world

Essential Executive Coaching Competencies For Enhancing Executive On-The-Job Performance: A Modified Delphi Study, Arturo Small Maxwell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Approximately 93% of Fortune 1000 companies in the United States rely upon executive coaching to accelerate executive performance. However, there is a lack of empirical research identifying effective executive coaching competencies. In this modified Delphi study, a panel of 17 executive coaching experts was purposefully selected from the International Coach Federation and the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Participant selection criteria included training in executive coaching, executive coaching credentialing, and -?¥3 years practicing executive coaching or purchasing executive coaching services. Participants used a 5 point Likert-type questionnaire to provide their expert opinion regarding essential executive coaching competencies for enhancing …

Snack Food Reinforcement During Work And Non-Work Hours Among U.S. Office Workers, Sherise Larks

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The current epidemic of overweight and obesity has been partly credited to a growing trend for snacking and sedentary work behaviors. The purpose of this quantitative, cross-sectional survey was to investigate whether the difference between snack food reinforcement during work and non-work hours and work food motives predicted BMI among U. S. office workers. This study was based on the theoretical framework of the individual differences theory, in the context of the behavioral choice theory and reinforcement theory. The independent variables were food reinforcement and food motives; the dependent variable was BMI. Descriptive, correlational, and exploratory analyses were used. The …

Data Note: Time From Vr Application To Closure In Employment For Adults With Intellectual Disabilities, Alberto Migliore, Uchenna Nwangwu, John Butterworth, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

Data Note Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

Getting a job as soon as possible after applying for vocational rehabilitation (VR) services is important for job seekers with intellectual disabilities. This DataNote describes how long it takes for job seekers with intellectual disabilities to go through the steps from application for VR services to determination of eligibility, completion of an individual employment plan, and closure into integrated employment.

Data Note: Reasons For Exiting Vr Services Without Employment, Alberto Migliore, Cady Landa, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

ThinkWork! Publications

Only 23% of adults with intellectual disabilities work, compared to 73% of people without disabilities (statedata.info). To bridge this gap, the vocational rehabilitation (VR) program offers valuable services including assessment, job search assistance, and counseling. In FY 2014, over 46,000 adults with intellectual disabilities exited the national VR program. About 38% of them reported an employment outcome. However, a large proportion of them exited without employment, and were reported as either having lost interest in receiving services (29%), or unable to be located by VR staff (17%). These two reasons combined represented 46% of the total number of case closures …

A Phenomenological Study Of Correctional Officers' Perceived Emotions On The Job, Heather Susan Grammatico

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Correctional officers work in a stressful environment and are regularly exposed to dangerous and emotionally charged situations. Researchers have detailed the potential negative outcomes of this occupation, yet little research has examined the extent to which correctional officers experience emotion while on their shifts, and how those emotions may translate into stress, divorce, substance abuse issues, domestic violence, and high mortality rates upon retirement. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to learn how correctional officers experience their felt and expressed emotions while at work. Data collection was done using a 15-item open ended questionnaire designed by the researcher and …

Influence Of Psychological Empowerment, Leadership, And Climate On Safety Outcomes, Christine Healy

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Research has demonstrated that safety outcomes are impacted by workplace risk factors, but also supervisory practices and employee actions. An area that has not been explored is the impact of employee cognitions on safety outcomes defined as work-related injuries. Based on the conceptual framework of psychological empowerment (PE), the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of employee cognitions as measured by PE as related to leadership and safety climate and the occurrence of work-related injury. The research examined the mediating effect of (PE) on the factors of leadership and safety climate and their relationship to work-related injury. …

Humanitarian Aid Workers' Perceptions Of Stress Management Services, Annette Hearns

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Humanitarian aid workers live and work in harsh circumstances far from loved ones and support mechanisms. The problem is that international aid must continue to work effectively despite stress levels. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand how aid workers perceive their work-related stressors, examine their subsequent experiences of in-house stress management services, and describe the factors that influence aid workers' decisions to access in-house stress management services. The conservation of resources theory was used to understand aid workers experience of stress. A purposive sampling technique was used to identify 12 aid workers with a minimum of 5 …