The long-term objectives of the proposed research project are to (1) enhance program participation and (2) improve the vocational outcome of persons with work disability due to arthritis and related musculoskeletal disorders (ARMD), who are actively seeking vocational rehabilitation services. It is hypothesized that persons with work disability due to ARMD seeking vocational rehabilitation (VR) services, who are exposed to an """"""""Agency Access Intervention"""""""", are more likely to gain entrance to the VR system and be determined eligible for services than are similar persons not exposed to the intervention. Further, it is hypothesized that persons with work disability due to ARMD who are determined to be eligible for VR services, and, who are exposed to an """"""""Agency Enhancement Intervention"""""""" during the provision of services are more likely to become and remain employed, upon completion of the VR program, than are similar persons not exposed to the intervention. The research design is a randomized, controlled, field experiment comparing the vocational outcomes of the group receiving the two-part intervention to those not receiving the intervention, and it allows evaluation of each component of the intervention separately. The intervention consists of training sessions to help prospective VR clients with ARMD successfully enter and complete the VR program, and training sessions for a randomly selected group of VR professionals to help them serve VR clients with ARMD more effectively. If this intervention strategy proves capable of significantly increasing (a) VR utilization rates, (b) post-service employment rates, and (c) duration of post-service employment in a previously underserved group with historically poor VR outcomes, it could have significant role in reducing the immense impact, nationally, of work disability due to arthritis and musculoskeletal disorders.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 145 publications
