- First meeting: Initial Evaluation Until a rehabilitation professional is assigned, plaintiff attorneys typically do not discuss vocational case management with their client. Rather, once vocational rehabilitation is assigned, this conversation generally takes place 10 minutes prior to the initial vocational meeting. Additionally, once the initial meeting commences, the attorney will typically remain present during introductions and the presentation of the RULES, and then excuse himself/herself. Though a general overview of the vocational case management process is presented, the bulk of this first meeting is devoted to gathering background information that will be used to develop the initial vocational evaluation.
- Second Meeting: IWRP Development The Individual Written Rehabilitation Plan (IWRP), (using the football analogy “game plan”) is the document prepared by the rehabilitation professional and presented to the injured worker that establishes goals to be accomplished, as well as the rehabilitation professional’s expectations of what the injured worker needs to do to achieve those goals. Essentially, what skills/training/education the rehabilitation professional feels the injured worker needs to acquire to return to a productive life. During the second meeting, the IWRP is discussed, as well as the administration and scouring of the O*net Interest Profiler and completion of an employment history worksheet. Additionally, the injured worker is provided with an email account established by the rehabilitation professional, which is to be used for all case management activity, to include submitting applications.) With reference to the IWRP the injured worker is advised, if he/she does not have a secondary educational degree, enrollment into an ABE/GED through the local community college will be mandatory. (Most ABE/GED program schedules are Monday through Thursday, 8:00 am to 12:00 pm.) For those individuals with a high school or GED degrees, involvement in volunteer work as long as volunteer work is addressed as “part of the vocational assessment or an individualized written rehabilitation plan and can be shown that it will assist the worker to return to suitable employment” (Jimmy Beasley v. Coastal Plain Farms, Inc.) Finally, in those communities where available, placement into a vocational (sheltered) workshop is also discussed as an option. According to N.C. General Statute 97-2(22) 2015 Section 32.2 (2) (d), specific vocational rehabilitation services may include, but are not limited to, vocational assessment, vocational exploration, sheltered workshop or community supported employment training, counseling, job analysis, job modification, job development and placement, labor market survey, vocational or psychometric testing, analysis of transferable skills, work adjustment counseling, job seeking skills training, on-the-job training, or training or education through the North Carolina community college or university system.
- Third Meeting: IWRP Execution The third meeting is where the IWRP is actually executed. The injured worker without a secondary degree is placed into an ABE/GED program through the local community college. He/she is provided a testing date to take the Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE), that will immediately be followed by a class schedule. For those injured workers with a high school degree or GED, he/she will be provided with a volunteer program and available work hours. Also, in that employers do not like seeing an application with a gap in an applicant’s work history, where available involvement in a sheltered (vocational) workshop will be instituted. Finally, during the third meeting the injured worker will be presented with not only qualified job leads where he/she is to submit applications but, an self-directed job search log requiring he/she to conduct independent job search and document submitted job applications.
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