The workers’ compensation insurance carrier provides vocational assistance to help injured workers return to suitable employment after an on-the-job injury.
Individuals who provide vocational assistance must be certified by the Workers’ Compensation Division and on the staff of a registered provider, insurer, or self-insured employer. The division expects registered vocational assistance providers and certified individuals to meet the following standards:
- Determine eligibility and provide assistance in an objective manner
- Fully inform the worker of the categories and kinds of vocational and re-employment assistance available
- Document all case activities in legible file notes or reports
- Provide only vocationally relevant information about workers in written and oral reports
- Recommend workers only for suitable employment
- Keep the worker fully informed of all activities
Certification and registration
To certify, individuals must complete and turn in Form 1880 to WCD (with each certification and each renewal). There are three types of vocational certifications available:
Duties: determine eligibility and provide vocational assistance services
Qualifications:
- Certification from any of the following:
- Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification
- Commission for Case Managers Certification (CCMC)
- Certification of Disability Management Specialists Commission
- Or any of the following:
- Master’s degree in vocational rehabilitation counseling and at least six months of direct experience
- Master’s degree in psychology, counseling, or a field related to vocational rehabilitation and 12 months of direct experience
- Bachelor’s degree or higher degree and 24 months of direct experience
- Thirty-six months of direct experience may substitute for a bachelor’s degree
Renewal of certification:
Vocational counselors must provide any of the documentation of the following qualifications upon certification and 30 days before expiring, every five years:
- Current certification by the Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification (CRCC)
- Commission for Case Managers Certification (CCMC)
- Certification of Disability Management Specialists Commission (CDMSC)
- Six hours of training on the Oregon vocational assistance and re-employment assistance rules
- Sixty hours of continuing education units under this rule within the five years prior to renewal
- At least eight hours must be for training in ethical practices in rehabilitation counseling
- At least six hours must be on the Oregon vocational assistance and re-employment assistance rules
Requirements and qualifications:
Duties:
- Job search skills instruction
- Job development
- Return-to-work follow-up
- Labor market search
- Determine eligibility for vocational assistance (except when such determination requires a judgment as to whether the worker has a substantial handicap to employment)
Qualifications:
- 24 months of direct experience
- Full-time (or the equivalent) additional college coursework in psychology, counseling, education, a human-services-related field, or a field related to vocational rehabilitation may substitute for up to 18 months of direct experience, on a month-for-month basis
- See
436-120-030(4) for information on meeting the direct experience requirements
Renewal of certification:
- Verification of a minimum of 60 hours of continuing education units
- Eight hours of the training must be in ethical practices in rehabilitation counseling
- Six hours must be on the Oregon vocational assistance and re-employment assistance rules
- See
436-120-0820(2) for more information