Counseling persons injured at work

Support and treatment programs for persons injured at work have expanded considerably since their early beginnings in Germany in 1884. Industrially injured workers must deal with problems in at least four major areas: 1) medical restoration, 2) temporary economic maintenance, 3) psychosocial adjustment to disability, and 4) vocational restoration. The counselor's role in assisting such persons is a significant one. In fact, it could be argued that the counselor is the only professional who has been specifically trained to assist persons who must confront the psychosocial and vocational restoration problems commonly associated with work-related injury. Both individual and group counseling methods can be used to facilitate positive psychosocial adjustment. Essential elements of the vocational restoration process include vocational assessment, job analysis, treatment (including career counseling and possibly physical restoration and/or job training), job placement, and follow-up. Specific counselor interventions in all areas should be guided by both theoretical and practical considerations, and family members and employers should be involved in programming whenever feasible or appropriate. Employee assistance programs and proprietary rehabilitation companies are discussed as relatively recent developments in the United States which offer potential to reduce and/or treat work-related injury and disability.This article is based on a paper of the same title presented at the International Round Table for the Advancement of Counseling Consultation on Counseling Disabled People and Their Families, Vienna, July 1987.