Proposed program

An amount of $5,631,000 is requested for support of 99 projects in 1967. The program level would be increased over 1966 by two additional projects at a cost of $120.000. Of the total number of projects, seven are in the area of heart disease, cancer, and stroke.

Special emphasis will continue in the development of new patterns of service to disabled youth, culturally deprived groups and socially maladjusted individuals such as public offenders. Also, there is need for further studies to expand the use of subprofessional workers to extend the service of trained professional personnel. Special emphasis will be placed on the development of techniques for breaking down barriers that exist to prevent delivery of rehabilitation services to those most in need of them.

Problems and goals

X. EXPERIMENTAL FACILITIES

With the rapid growth of the workshop movement and the development of comprehensive rehabilitation centers over the country, there is an increasing demand for (1) experimentation with staffing patterns and physical arrangements for service to different populations; (2) exploration of means for obtaining contracts to provide work for workshop populations; (3) study of the functions of various units within a comprehensive center; (4) development of research programs within workshops and centers in order that they may study and evaluate their own programs. The new legislation providing for expansion of workshop activity increases the need for knowledge in all aspects of workshop management and operation. Within the workshop field there are special functions performed by special types of facilities. Investigations are therefore required in specialized areas of service such as activity centers which provide developmental services for clients moving to transitional workshops where work potential is evaluated.

The evaluative functions of workshops and centers will be further extended by new legislation which provides special funds for evaluation of severely disabled individuals for periods of 6 months or up to 18 months (for mentally retarded and other specially designated groups). The ability of the vocational rehabilitation program to design effective services to the handicapped rests squarely on the capacity to evaluate the abilities and needs of the individual client. Facilities must be provided for long-term study and evaluation of clients in order to properly identify remedial procedures required.

Accomplishments

A recently completed project has established architectural guides for workshops which will be valuable in implementing new legislation for the construction and development of workshops. Another project has completed the development of standards for the operation of rehabilitation centers and facilities. Projects are underway to establish evaluation procedures for workshops and rehabilitation centers. A project to develop a systematic voluntary reporting procedure for rehabilitation centers and facilities has been completed. This system will make possible much better studies of the needs in various areas of the country.

Another project has developed a major university as a regional facility with specialized services to meet the needs of severely handicapped college students. This project is providing information and guidelines to other institutions of higher learning for serving the needs of the handicapped.

A project to demonstrate the value of a statewide network of sheltered workshops has resulted in State legislation to provide local tax support for those shops, which have been placed under the administrative supervision of the State vocational rehabilitation agency. Other projects are demonstrating the use of a central evaluation team to serve clients in satellite workshops.

Proposed program

An amount of $780,000 is requested for support of 12 projects in 1967. The program level would be increased over 1966 by one additional project at a cost of $68,000.

Projects to test the use of central technical staffs to serve satellite shops should be broadened to include experts in industrial engineering and marketing in order to provide workshops with the technical ability to bid for and fulfill complex modern industrial jobs, both at the operator level and at the middle management level.

An alternative that needs testing is the development of laboratory-workshops within an industry to provide training in the newer types of industrial jobs, the opportunity for the employer to observe handicapped workers performing these jobs and placement of the handicapped into permanent industrial positions when they have developed the necessary skills and work tolerance. Emphasis in these projects should be on heart, cancer, and stroke cases.

Problems and goals

XI. OTHER PROJECTS

With an increasing number of completed projects each year, the dissemination of the findings of rehabilitation research is of paramount concern to the Vocational Rehabilitation Administration. Major problems include not only the need for the new techniques to be utilized in the field for the severely disabled, but that in some of our collaborative projects these new techniques be further enhanced by their use in conjunction with new and tested professional approaches in other rehabilitation fields.

Accomplishments

Several research conferences have been held. On explored the contribution of sociology to problems in rehabilitation. Others have been concerned with control and function of the neurogenic bladder, the bioengineering aspects of prosthetics and orthotics, group approaches to counseling the disabled, communication problems of the deaf, and neurological problems in the rehabilitation field. In relation to heart disease, cancer, and stroke, three conferences were held on each of the areas during the 1966 fiscal year covering current rehabilitation knowledge and gaps in information.

Proposed 1967 program

For 1967, a total of $191,000 is requested to fund nine projects. This will allow for support of the program at the same level as in 1966.

ACTIVITY II. TRAINING

The 1967 request for teaching grants, traineeships and research fellowships in rehabilitation amounts to $29,800,000, an increase of $5 million over 1966. Of the $29,800,000 requested, $26,834,000 is needed to continue at the same level training programs initiated in previous years; $2,966,000 is for initiation of new teaching programs, expansion of established teaching programs, and an increase in the number of traineeships.

This requested increase will make possible an orderly expansion of the training programs engaged in preparing the manpower for expanding rehabilitation programs in State vocational rehabilitation agencies, sheltered workshops and other community rehabilitation agencies. The increase of training, service and research in heart disease, cancer, and stroke programs will place new de mands for trained personnel upon educational institutions. Enactment of the 1965 vocational rehabilitation amendments also increases the demand for personnel, especially for rehabilitation counselors and sheltered workshop managers and floor supervisors. The recently enacted social security amendment which provides for the provisions of vocational rehabilitation services to disabled beneficiaries will also greatly increase the need for additional medical and paramedical personnel. Trends in the public vocational rehabilitation agencies to serve severely disabled persons, such as the alcoholic, the narcotic addict, the public offender and the recovering mental patient accentuate the demand for trained personnel. The passage of medicare, too, will mean an increased demand for rehabilitation personnel in hospitals and nursing homes. Failure to expand existing training programs and to initiate new ones will mean very serious delays in alleviating personnel shortages.

Legislative authority

SECTION A. GENERAL

Statutory authority for support of training activities is provided in sections 4(a) (1) and 7(a)(3) of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1954, as amended. Activities under section 4 are financed by grants and those under section 7 through funds made available under contract.

Types of support

Training activities are financed in the following ways:

(1) Teaching grants.-These are grants made to educational institutions to employ faculty or otherwise expand or improve their instructional resources or to produce teaching materials;

(2) Traineeship grants.-These are grants to educational institutions for stipends for living expenses and tuition awarded to students selected by the grantees;

(3) State in-service training grants.-These are grants to State vocational rehabilitation agencies for the conduct of staff development programs for their own personnel;

(4) Contracts.-These are arrangements with educational institutions and agencies for the conduct of short-term training programs on technical matters pertaining to vocational rehabilitation; and

(5) Research fellowships.-These are funds awarded directly by the Vocational Rehabilitation Administration to individuals for independent research in rehabilitation or advanced training in research methods.

Program objectives

The long-range goal of the training program is to produce personnel in sufficient numbers and of sufficient quality to staff the rehabilitation programs of the Nation, both governmental and voluntary.

Current fields of support

SECTION B. LONG-TERM TRAINING

Grants are now being made in the fields of rehabilitation counseling, medicine, prosthetic-orthotic education, speech pathology and audiology, occupational therapy, physical therapy, psychology, rehabliation of the deaf, rehabilitation of the blind, rehabilitation of the mentally ill and retarded, rehabilitation facilities administration, nursing, social work, recreation for the ill and disabled, sociology, dentistry, and for interdisciplinary training in rehabilitation.