REHABILITATION SHORT-TERM TRAINING

This program supports special seminars, institutes, workshops and other short-term courses in technical matters relating to the delivery of vocational, medical, social, and psychological rehabilitation services. Projects under this program are announced in the Federal Register in areas of special national or regional significance to the delivery of rehabilitation services.

PROJECTS:

This project will implement an interstate training coalition to address the training needs of personnel who provide direct vocational rehabilitation and psychiatric rehabilitation services to individuals with serious mental illness. The project will address four objectives.

1. conduct a series of 10 quarterly training workshops in each of six states that address the core competencies of rehabilitation service design and provision for persons with serious mental illness;
2. assist states in the development of internal capacity for ongoing training and technical assistance through development of an eight-person training team within each state;
3. develop and broadcast four satellite teleconferences, providing access to state of the art information and training to rural-based provider agencies, consumer and advocacy organizations, and other groups; and
4. develop a regional newsletter and a resource lending library for agencies and organizations with the six-state region.

This project will implement an interstate training coalition to address the training needs of personnel who provide direct vocational rehabilitation and psychiatric rehabilitation services to individuals with serious mental illness. The project will address four objectives.

1. conduct a series of 10 quarterly training workshops in each of six states that address the core competencies of rehabilitation service design and provision for persons with serious mental illness;
2. assist states in the development of internal capacity for ongoing training and technical assistance through development of an eight-person training team within each state;
3. develop and broadcast four satellite teleconferences, providing access to state of the art information and training to rural-based provider agencies, consumer and advocacy organizations, and other groups; and
4. develop a regional newsletter and a resource lending library for agencies and organizations with the six-state region.

The overall goal of this multi-state comprehensive and multi-tiered joint mental health/vocational rehabilitation training project is to promote the development and knowledge and skills, resources and linkages that will enhance the vocational rehabilitation of persons with severe psychiatric disabilities. The project will establish a training collaboration involving the New England Psychiatric Rehabilitation Program, the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation at Boston University and the Center on Promoting Employment (RRTC) at Boston's Childrens Hospital in developing interrelated training interventions designed to address the identified training needs and priorities. These interventions include leadership training, network training and a series of teleconferences on issues related to psychiatric vocational rehabilitation practices and programs.

This project is aimed at personnel responsible for stimulating Braille literacy among clients in rehabilitation agencies for the blind. Through this project, rehabilitation personnel will improve their effectiveness through an integrated program of training in Braille in three different levels. As a consequence they will be able to set more constructive goals for the students they teach. The project offers:

1. Braille literacy training to introduce Braille and effective Braille teaching methods;
2. Braille competency training, providing preparation for the national literacy Braille competency test; and
3. Braille access technology training to familiarize agency staff with Braille access technological devices to assist staff in matching specific pieces of technology to specific personal needs.

This project presents a comprehensive Braille novice-to-expert instructional program offered completely via the Internet/World Wide Web (WWW). The program offers all aspects of Braille at self-paced timing in the home or work place. By combining electronic technologies, quality materials, and expert instructors, the program has as its goal the provision of a complete Braille instructional program to all types of consumers nationwide, who have an interest in some or all aspects of Braille codes. The project expects to provide efficiency and economy of effort over traditional workshops and training programs in that the courses will be available to large numbers of students nationally without the need for them to travel or disrupt their normal work schedules.

The Regional Rehabilitation Continuing Education Program at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, provides rehabilitation personnel at all levels within public rehabilitation agencies, client assistance projects, centers for independent living, and the Section 130 Native American Rehabilitation Programs with relevant knowledge, skills, and mastery of new program developments to enhance their effectiveness as service providers to individuals with disabilities in Region V ( Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin).

Under this grant, the National Association of Protection & Advocacy Systems plans, develops, coordinates and conducts national, multi-regional and regional training programs and provides technical assistance to individual Client protection programs (CAPs) and staff on an as-needed basis. The primary goal of this project is to increase the number of skilled professionals by maintaining and upgrading the knowledge and skills of personnel currently employed by CAPs and by addressing the training needs of newly hired staff.