Question
Can you say more about the vocational treatment. What exactly do you do?
Answer
In many programs, you already have the 18 and older with the DOR, the Department of Rehab, but a lot of times,that may only be the 18+ population. When you are working with a Transitional Aged Youth (TAY) population, you need to do that prevocational work as well. In some models and the model that I work with, I had an employment specialist working with me. I would do a lot of prevocational training. Helping them to understand what is a good employee look like, communication skills, etc.
We even go into things like resume building, role playing interviews. Discussing what are qualities that employers are looking for. Looking at their interests. If there is no Department of Rehab and you are doing the actual employment stuff, then we usually help them work on communicating their needs to an employer if they need to. We try to teach them the aspects of the job and the skills so that we do not need to be there and they can be self-reliant. We work on confidence building and communication skills.
