Is it Worth it?
Travis applied for services through the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, State of Colorado (DVR). DVR is a state agency that is state and federally funded. DVR works with individuals who have disabilities that are a substantial impediment to employment. In other words, they help people that have disabilities get jobs.
Eligibility for services is based on the following criteria:
You must have a medically documentable physical, mental, or emotional disability.
The disability must interfere with your ability to get (or keep) jobs.
You must need vocational rehabilitation services from DVR to achieve employment.
Services provided are dependent upon your individual needs. Some services are based on financial need. Types of services include:
Medical Examinations
Physical Restoration
Occupational Tools/Clothing
Vocational Testing
Vocational Training
Vocational Counseling and Guidance
According to the DVR information sheet, “Rehabilitation is a process that takes place over time. Services are not immediate and we cannot guarantee employment. Your active involvement and cooperation will greatly influence the success of your program”.
The first step is an intake meeting with the DVR counselor. We signed several release of information forms, in order for DVR to obtain existing records to better evaluate Travis’s situation. DVR had requested that we bring any medical records we had for them to make a copy of at the meeting. You know me, I had a stack of records and evaluations for their file.
At the time of the intake meeting, Travis was receiving services through the Mental Illness waiver. He was on the waiting list for the Intellectual/Developmental Disability waiver. While on the waiting list, Foothills Gateway, the local Community Center Board, assigned Travis to a psychiatrist and a therapist. The DVR counselor also wanted to communicate with Travis’s family doctor.
We signed the releases so that the DVR counselor could communicate with all of the members of Team Travis.
DVR required an updated physical from the doctor. The DVR counselor wanted to know what diagnoses Travis had been given, and also what his physical limitations were relating to his ability to work.
In the DVR application packet it says that DVR will provide any and all evaluations necessary to determine eligibility. That was not necessary in Travis’s case, I brought current evaluations to the meeting. The packet also states, “If you are determined eligible, you may need to wait for further goods and services from DVR because we may not have enough resources to provide them to you right away.
When DVR has a waiting list for Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) services, you will be assigned an order of selection priority classification when you are deemed eligible. Your priority classification and our funding level will determine how long you need to wait. Eligible individuals with the most significant disabilities will be served first, individuals with significant disabilities will be served second, and all other individuals with disabilities will be served third. Individuals within each of these categories will be served in order of their application dates.”
The goal of DVR is that the counselor will determine eligibility within 60 days. About two months later Travis received a letter that he was determined eligible to receive services leading to employment. He was placed in the “Persons with most significant disabilities” category. These categories are based on the expected areas of need, number of services, and length of time services may be needed.
The letter stated, “Currently, we are not able to provide vocational rehabilitation services to everyone in your classification. Your name has been put on a wait list. When resources become available, individuals in your wait list category will be contacted and provided vocational rehabilitation services in order based on the date of application. All individuals in the most significant classification will be provided services before individuals in the significant disability and other category”.
Surprise. Another wait list. And is he supposed to feel better because he falls in the most significant disability category?
DVR included information about other service programs that might be able to serve Travis. The list included provider agencies. The same agencies that Foothills Gateway could include in his Service Plan. Only at this time, Travis was still on that wait list. And when Travis did make it to the top of the Supported Living Services waiver list, Supported Employment was a service category on his Service Plan. Only the plan stated under Supported Employment, must apply through DVR first. Hmmm.
A few months later Travis’s name got to the top of the list. I did call monthly to make sure his name was still moving along. Did it make a difference? It’s hard to say, but it certainly couldn’t hurt.
The next step in the process was preparing the Individualized Employment Plan (IPE). According to the DVR chart handout, “In partnership with your DVR counselor:
Analyze - your strengths, resources, concerns, priorities, abilities, capabilities and interests.
Make Informed Choices - about your employment goal.
Consider - impact of wages on other benefits programs (SSI).
Discover - activities needed to reach your employment goal.
Decide - which activities require purchasing a product or a service.
Make Informed Choices - about where to purchase products or services, available resources to pay for services, financial need analysis.
Estimate - amount of time required for each activity.
Justify - research to ensure that your efforts will result in successful employment.
Approve - by your counselor purchasing requirements.
RESULT - written Individualized Employment Plan.
On Travis’s IPE she had his employment goal as Material Moving Worker. Which I found to be quite confusing. Because if the counselor had analyzed his strengths and interests, how did she come up with that employment goal?
As I reread through his plan I am reminded that it is a template. The first two months of his plan state that he will receive Personal Adjustment Training through Foothills Gateway. He chose Foothills Gateway as his supported employment provider because he already had a relationship with them.
Travis’s IPE states, “Client will complete personal adjustment training to increase skills or adjust behaviors in independent living, communications, homemaking, personal mobility and specialized transportation scheduling to travel in the community for job seeking and getting a job. This training includes short term organizational skills training for client to retain the skills to be successful with preparing, seeking and gaining employment.”
Over the next three months of his IPE, Travis is to receive Work Adjustment Training and Community Situational Assessments. Per his IPE, “Client will complete situational assessments to learn more work environment and current skills and abilities for a good job fit. Will participate in work adjustment training to develop skills necessary to become successfully employed, such as peer work relationships, supervisory work relationships, general work behaviors and expectations and work habits. This included training to improve interpersonal skills to the degree necessary to engage in employment.
Team will contact vocational counselor monthly for vocational guidance and counseling to share Kelly’s learned skills, to problem solve, to adjust services as appropriate and any accommodations needed to be successful with gaining the new work skills.”
Yep. It actually says Kelly. Maybe Kelly wants to be a Materials Mover? Because I know for sure that is not Travis’s employment goal.
The next service listed in his IPE is to take place over the entire year. The IPE is an annual plan. This service is called Restoration, Medical/Psychological Medical Restoration. Travis’s IPE states, “Client will attend all scheduled medical and/or counseling sessions and will report to DVR counselor with any changes or issues that would affect your ability to participate or perform”. Meaning that Travis needed to continue to see his psychiatrist and therapist in order to try to stabilize his behavior so that he could become employable.
Those of you that have been following our story since my first blog know that Travis has been seeing a psychiatrist and receiving therapy since he was seven years old.
The next service highlighted on his IPE is Job Search and Placement Services. DVR will assist in preparing for, finding, and securing competitive employment in the stated employment goal. Job Placement Services include job preparation and development and ongoing assistance once employment has been secured. DVR pays Foothills Gateway to provide job placement services. The IPE states, “Client will have support from job placement specialist to obtain and maintain employment in their chosen field”.
Job Training/Coaching is another service in the IPE. Per the IPE, “Once employment has been secured, job coaching will be provided in order to retain employment. Job coaching will include job skill training at the work site, work site orientation, monitoring on the job site to assess employment stability and coordinate services at or away from the work site to maintain employment.”
It is important to note, that DVR provides job counseling. All other services DVR pays providers. The upside to this is that the funds do not come out of Travis’s ID/DD waiver Service plan. Leaving that money to pay for his other needs.
They also allow for a bus pass, and some money to buy appropriate interview attire.
Here is how the DVR funding part of his IPE breaks down: Personal Adjustment Training $400; Work Adjustment Training $1,400; Job Search and Placement $5,500; Job Training $3,000; Clothing $150; and Bus Pass $25 for a total of $10,475.
I am a positive person. I continue to hold out hope for Travis to get to a place where he can function at a job. And at some type of job that has meaning to him. That is why I continue to unturn every stone I come upon. And I am grateful to DVR. For putting this investment into my boy.
It was important for him to find a job because he needed a place to go. That made his life more meaningful to him. It would help with his self-esteem. And his chronic depression. Maybe he would be able to help with his living expenses.
When I called and made the intake appointment I was frank about our situation. I shared all of Travis’s evaluations and records. During the appointment we shared information about the internships that he held. And Travis was Travis at the intake meeting. How does that saying go? Talk like a sailor? That’s how Travis talks, maybe even worse. He did not learn that at home.
And yet, the DVR counselor was confident that Travis was employable. Even though he used profanities to describe how his life is going. DVR would pay the provider agency $400 for Personal Adjustment Training to adjust his behaviors and communication in gaining employment. I remember thinking at the time, this trainer must be good. Remember, Travis had participated in social skills training and worked on his anger management in therapy for several years at this point.
Saying everything he is thinking out loud? Imagine that at work.
A $10,475 investment. You would think it would be worth it if Travis came out employable in the end.
As it turned out, that was the investment for year one. Next week I will share with you how year one played out. And then year two. And then year three. In all honesty, I don’t have any idea how much of each year’s plan actually got billed by the provider.
In the back of my mind I began to wonder. At what point does having Travis jumping through all of these hoops cause more damage than good? I’ll explain what I mean by that statement next week. And then we can address the question. Is it worth it?
“It’s gotten to the point where I am working here to pay for the prescriptions I now require to cope with working here.” - Author Unknown