One program…with a multitude of opportunities.
Rehabilitation Counselors are counselors first, with a special twist to their preparation. That twist originated almost 100 years ago when we responded to the needs of Veterans returning from WWI navigating a new world in their families and communities as a person with a disability. We have built on what we learned about counseling and providing case management services to people overcoming disadvantages, physical disabilities, substance use disorders and mental illnesses to become the counselors we are today.
We have learned to use our expertise in three critical areas in a multitude of arenas:
- counseling;
- medical, psychosocial and functional aspects of disabilities; and
- vocational issues, career development and the world of work.
Using this expertise, we continue to serve Veterans in Vocational Rehabilitation & Employment programs in the Veterans Administration, people with disabilities in public vocational rehabilitation agencies, people recovering from traumatic incidents or disorders in rehabilitation hospitals, clients in substance abuse treatment and mental health programs, employee assistance programs, to name a few.
Rehabilitation counselors interview people with disabilities and their families, evaluate school and medical reports, and confer and plan with physicians, psychologists, occupational therapists, and employers to determine the capabilities and skills of the individual. Conferring with the client, they develop a rehabilitation program that often includes training to help the person develop job skills. Rehabilitation counselors also work toward increasing the client’s capacity to live independently.
Our future: Rehabilitation counselors, for example, have begun to determine, coordinate, and arrange for rehabilitation and transition services for children within school systems. In addition, rehabilitation counselors are providing geriatric rehabilitation services to older persons with health problems, and workers injured on the job are increasingly receiving rehabilitation services through private rehabilitation counseling companies and employers’ disability management and employee assistance programs. They may also become life-care planners assisting individuals who will experience major long-term disability
– Council on Rehabilitation Education
Mission
The Rehabilitation Counselor Education program at West Virginia University forwards the land grant mission of the University by providing a strong practitioner training program focused on the unique needs of diverse communities. We are committed to preparing entry-level rehabilitation counselors to work competently and ethically within a pluralistic society. Our central organizing approach rests in understanding the unique needs of individuals, couples, families, and groups experiencing disability or other disadvantages across their lifespan in our society, at work, home and play.
A main objective of the program is to prepare counselors with the counseling and assessment knowledge and skills to assist clients with mental, physical and emotional disabilities. In order to accomplish this, our objective is to provide educational and practical experiences that will allow every student to meet the following knowledge and outcome expectations outlined by the Council on Rehabilitation Education.
The objectives of our program are linked to our mission statement. They are to provide:
- Educational experiences for every student that facilitates the development of knowledge, skills and beliefs necessary to practice as a qualified rehabilitation counselor.
- Learning opportunities to supports students’ ability to implement culturally responsive and ethically sound rehabilitation counseling practices.
- Clinical training environments that are focused on real world expectations
To learn more about the program, read through the
Student Handbook
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Student Handbook (Large Print)
The Rehabilitation Counseling program at West Virginia University (WVU) is fully accredited by the Council on Rehabilitation Education (CORE) through the end of the 2018/2019 academic year (“www.core-rehab.org”: ). The two master’s degree programs; an on-campus program and an on-line program have a goal of admitting 20 students in each graduate cohort. Both programs admit students in the fall. Student outcomes are evaluated each year on a variety of different metrics that are part of the overall program evaluation.
Currently, the graduate programs have a total of 60 students. The programs have three full-time faculty and one part-time adjunct faculty who teach the CORE accredited curriculum. The instructor to student ratio is 1:7. The current grade point average of the students in the program is 3.32.
For the 2010-2011 academic year, a total of 21 students graduated from the program. 100% of students passed their clinical coursework. During the same 2010-2011 academic year, eighty-three percent of WVU’s graduates passed the Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC) exam www.crccertification.com
Twenty-seven percent of the students are known to be from underrepresented groups, including people with disabilities. The program has a total of two training grants funded by the US Rehabilitation Services Administration that generate a total of $335,583 each year in student support in the form of tuition and scholarships.