DOI

https://doi.org/10.25772/MT4Z-T111

Defense Date

2019

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Health Related Sciences

First Advisor

Carolyn Hawley, PhD

Second Advisor

Christine Reid, PhD

Third Advisor

Christopher Wagner, PhD

Fourth Advisor

Lias Ottomanelli-Slone, PhD

Fifth Advisor

Lance Goetz, MD

Abstract

Employment rates for veterans with spinal cord injuries remain low despite legislation aimed at helping individuals with significant barriers to employment succeed in finding competitive work. As access to services and resultant outcomes become more scrutinized, the need for Rehabilitation Counselors to efficiently allocate resources grows more vital to the cause. Existing research supports a mediated path model of rehabilitation counselor clinical judgment asserting observations of disability severity, intelligence, and psychosocial adjustment lead to inferences of functional status and attribution thereof, which collectively influence predictions of successful rehabilitation. The current study investigated the variance attributable to this clinical judgement model in relation to access to services and successful employment outcomes in an implementation study of the Individualized Placement and Support Model of supported employment with a sample of veterans living with spinal cord injuries. The reduced model fit


the data well, Chi-square (6, N=213) = 3.391, P=.758, CFI =1, RMSEA=.00, Hoelter .05 =788. Disability Severity was found to have an indirect effect on employment, .095 P<.05. Significant direct effects for disability severity on functional status, education on competitive employment, functional status on competitive employment, and minutes on competitive employment. The results indicate time as a resource was allocated equitably among participants in the first thirty days in regard to the exogenous variables in this study. The reduced model accounted for 8.6% of the observed variance in the data.

Rights

© The Author

Is Part Of

VCU University Archives

Is Part Of

VCU Theses and Dissertations

Date of Submission

12-2-2019

Share

COinS