ROLE AND FUNCTION OF THE COUNSELOR TABLE 2 Comparison of Four Different Studies of Rehabilitation 105 1. Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, Ninth-Annual Workshop on Guidance, Training and Placement (1966). 2. Miller, Muthard, and Barillas (1965). 3. Muthard and Solomone (1969). 4. Tully (1970). in the community and the difficulties involved in serving deaf clients were the main reasons cited for having reduced caseloads. : Counselors with Deaf Individuals in Other Settings As indicated previously, counselors with deaf persons are employed in a number of different settings. In some situations, the counselor's role is rather clearly defined while in other cases it is much more ambiguous. At one end of the spectrum are counselors employed in community service agencies for deaf people. Generally, these programs are located in large metropolitan areas and are frequently attached to a larger agency. The services provided by these agencies are quite broad and may include everything from personal adjustment counseling to adult education. Generally, the staff of the community service agency is quite small. As a result, the counselor may assume a number of subroles. In addition to providing counseling, he may also be responsible for administration of the agency. Other duties may include interpreting, teaching, psychological examinations, and consulting with other agency officials. Deaf people who come to community service agencies generally have a number of different problems. Consequently, counselors often find them 106 COUNSELING WITH DEAF PEOPLE selves in the position of providing personal counseling and financial advice to the same client. This is a difficult situation at best. Another problem faced by the community service agency counselor is related to the small size and close-knit characteristics of the deaf population. Generally, most deaf people using the services of an agency such as this usually will know each other. Some may be co-workers or members of the same family. This can often result in the deaf person being reluctant to divulge certain information to the counselor for fear that others will learn about it. To keep this from happening, special efforts must be made to maintain confidentiality. While the conditions described above are less than desirable, they often are unavoidable. Without the necessary staff and other community resources, the counselor has little choice but to assume these additional responsibilities. The fact remains, however, that role conflict is a very real problem to these counselors. In view of the conditions described above, it is rather surprising that the problem of role conflict for the counselor serving deaf persons has only recently been noted in the literature. Stewart (1967) called attention to this problem, especially as it relates to deaf professional counselors. He discussed the tendency among deaf counselors to select their social associates from outside the profession. Generally, these social contacts involve deaf individuals with whom the counselor works in a professional role. Stewart recommended that "while complete avoidance of such relationships is neither practical nor desirable, the deaf professional counselor should give serious consideration to avoidance of situations tending to compromise his effectiveness as a professional" (p. 25). Whitworth (1968) also noted this problem and cautioned that a deaf counselor may be too close to the world in which the client lives and, as a result, the client may be afraid that his personal problems will find their way back to his friends and peers. Another type of counselor is the one employed in a special facility such as Gallaudet College or the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. Generally, these counselors are trained as counselors and are part of a professional staff which includes psychologists, social workers, audiologists, speech therapists, and job placement specialists. When problems arise that require the services of these other workers, the counselor need only make the proper referral. As noted in Chapter II, counseling programs that exist in residential schools tend to be somewhat better than in public day schools and classes. However, in almost all school settings the role and functions of counselors are generally not clearly delineated. ROLE AND FUNCTION OF THE COUNSELOR 107 For example, a number of counselors in educational programs have dual roles, i.e., they carry other duties in addition to counseling. In fact, in some schools counselors are also part-time teachers. This inevitably leads to role conflict and should be avoided whenever possible. Moreover, some school counselors attempt to provide guidance by lecturing in a classroom situation rather than on a one-to-one basis, as should be the case. The classroom approach may be suitable for the dissemination of occupational information, but individualized counseling is necessary for personal, educational, and vocational planning for the individual student. Frequently, students and other school personnel have misconceptions regarding the role of the counselor. They may see him as primarily a guidance person. While guidance is an integral part of the counselor's work, it is by no means his only function. To remedy this, counselors should make special efforts to convey to others the goals of counseling as well as the role of the counselor. In conclusion, it can be stated that the role and functions of the counselor with deaf persons are basically the same as would be the case were he working with hearing people. However, some exceptions to this generalization deserve note. First, the communication problems faced by the deaf client generally preclude referral to many of the resources the counselor of the hearing person would use. For example, a placement specialist unable to use sign language and uninformed about the vocational implications of deafness would not be able to work effectively with most deaf clients. Thus, the responsibility for placement would rest with the counselor. Other functions such as interpreting in interviews with physicians and lawyers, assisting in psychological testing, interceding with employers, and the like cause the role of the specialist with deaf people to be much broader and his counseling functions more varied than the counselor who devotes all of his efforts to counseling and delegates all other tasks to paraprofessionals or specialists in related areas. Thus, the counselor of deaf clients might be termed a "general practitioner" in the sense that his duties are quite varied. At the same time, however, he is a specialist with respect to his knowledge of the uniqueness of his client. - 72 - pt. 2 - 27 CHAPTER V Counselor Selection, Education, and Training JOHN F. MCGOWAN This chapter has two purposes. The first is to review recommenda tions published by divisional committees of the American Psychological Association, the American Personnel and Guidance Association, and the National Rehabilitation Association, dealing with the selection, education, and training of vocational rehabilitation counselors. Reports resulting from meetings of the Rehabilitation Services Administration sponsored annual workshops on guidance, training, and placement, reports prepared under the authority of the Joint Liaison Council, and the results of several appropriate Ph.D. studies are also reviewed for background data on training recommendations. The second purpose of this chapter is to relate these recommendations to the selection, education, and training of counselors who are to work with deaf people. Several parts of the chapter consist of revised and updated material that was originally prepared by McGowan and Porter for use in the R.S.A. training manual, An Introduction to the Vocational Rehabilitation Process (1967). Material contained in earlier chapters of this book have helped to define vocational rehabilitation counseling and have identified the various roles and functions of counselors. These materials have established the fact that differences of opinion do exist in regard to the counselor's role and function that need to be examined in more detail before any definitive statements can be made in regard to training. This can best be accom 108 COUNSELOR SELECTION, EDUCATION, AND TRAINING 109 plished by reviewing the two different theoretical "models" of the counselor's role that dominate counselor training and practice at the present time and by considering present approaches used in preparing counselors for work with deaf people. THEORETICAL MODELS OF THE COUNSELOR'S ROLE As Chapter IV has indicated, the opinions expressed in the literature regarding the rehabilitation counselor's appropriate occupational role reveal two rather diffuse but nevertheless discernible theoretical models. The first model conceptualizes the rehabilitation counselor functioning as an interdisciplinary or sometimes multidisciplinary worker, a coordinator of services, and "captain of the rehabilitation team" (Coordinator Model). The other model depicts the counselor as being primarily a "professional counselor" whose main contribution to the rehabilitation process is his counseling function (Counselor Model). Patterson (1957) discusses the rehabilitation counselor's role in an article entitled "Counselor or Coordinator?" He states that: "On this point there appears to be some difference of opinion, or confusion, or both" (p. 13). He further points out that the rehabilitation counselor training programs need an answer to this question in order to plan a course of study that will prepare counselors to perform their prescribed function. A discussion of the pros and cons of the Coordinator Model and the Counselor Model follows. The "Coordinator" Model Cottle (1953) has this to say about the rehabilitation counselor's job: In himself and his fellow counselors he (the rehabilitation counselor) sees a combination of parent, doctor, psychologist, teacher, policeman, public relations expert, personnel manager, placement specialist, and jack of all trades. Certainly the field of vocational rehabilitation is one of the broadest in the whole catalog of professions. (p. 446) Hamilton (1950) and Johnson (1960) suggest that they do not perceive of "counseling" as being the counselor's major task. They try to show the counselor as a "coordinator" of many types of services, and therefore a person who must possess a multitude of skills based on a wide range of training. Johnston (1960) maintains that the rehabilitation counselor is not a psychologist, psychiatrist, sociologist, social worker, or physician. He is a "maverick" of the highest caliber drawn from all the above |