Rehabilitation Issues

A regular part of Fergus’s clinical practice in the last seventeen years is dealing with the specific issues that arise as a consequence of employment and the workplace. For three years, Fergus was a Senior Social Worker with the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Service. While his primary job was helping people adjust to disability, there was a large focus on getting people back to work and managing workplace issues. Over the years he has developed various programs for managing the various elements of disability in order to maximise outcomes for his clients and their employers.

Disability can be a result of birth, or acquired later in life due to accident, illness or genetic predisposition. It can be relatively mild to severe. When individuals, couples and families are confronted with disability, it can be a shocking and overwhelming experience.

Permanent disability means people’s lives are changed forever, and that they, or someone they love may never fit their dreams of how life should be. The way people are managed through these changes can greatly enhance their chance of better life.

There are a number of specific needs that should be addressed when a person has to manage a disability and maximise the outcomes of rehabilitation. Some of these issues include:

• Managing the initial shock and ongoing grief(s). This means assisting people to manage their perceived and real losses of health, vigour, and employment, as well as loss of social and financial status. Such grief is normally associated with anxiety, depression, despair and a lack of vision of a future.
• The need to maximise the potential of the person with the disability. This includes looking at support networks, both formal and informal, finding what resources are available and how to access them.
• Setting realistic physical and employment goals that are achievable, meaningful and relevant.
• The need to help the person fit into, or re-enter employment and society so that they can feel valued. This includes ongoing monitoring and support, evaluation and strategic planning, especially early in the transition process.

This may also include: pain management, a sensible physical, psychological and emotional rehabilitation program, a re-education or vocational retraining program.