1310.00 Supported Employment Policy

1. who has a severe physical or mental impairment which seriously limits three or more functional capacities (such as mobility, communication, self-care, self-direction, interpersonal skills, work tolerance, or work skills) in terms of an employment outcome; and
2. whose vocational rehabilitation can be expected to require multiple vocational rehabilitation services over an extended period of time (nine months or more); and
3. who has one or more physical or mental disabilities resulting from amputation, arthritis, autism, blindness, burn injury, cancer, cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, deafness, head injury, heart disease, hemiplegia, hemophilia, respiratory or pulmonary dysfunction, mental retardation, mental illness, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, musculoskeletal disorders, neurological disorders (including stroke and epilepsy), paraplegia, quadriplegia, and other spinal cord conditions, sickle cell anemia, specific learning disability, end stage renal disease, or another disability or combination of disabilities determined by an assessment of eligibility and vocational rehabilitation needs to cause comparable substantial functional limitations.

1. is eligible for vocational rehabilitation services;
2. has a most severe disability;
3. has not worked, or has worked only intermittently, in competitive employment due to the disability; and
4. has a comprehensive assessment of rehabilitation needs which identifies supported employment as the appropriate rehabilitation objective for the individual.

Ongoing support services are provided at least twice a month, usually at the work site, during both the intensive and extended service phases of the individual's employment. The goal of these services is to develop and/or maintain employment stability. The services can occur at places other than the work site, especially if the individual so requests. If provided away from the work site, it must be documented in the IWRP and consist of at least two meetings with the individual and one contact with the employer each month.

Ongoing support services may consist of:

1. necessary additional assessments at the work site;
2. job coaches at the work site;
3. job development and placement;
4. social skills training;
5. regular observation or supervision;
6. follow up services with employers, the individual, parents, family members, advocates, other authorized persons;
7. facilitating natural supports at the work site; and
8. other support services at or away from the work site, such as transportation and personal assistance services.

Intensive Supported Employment Services are ongoing services and other appropriate services based on a determination of the specific needs of an individual to enter and maintain supported employment. They may include:

1. assessment and job orientation;
2. travel training;
3. job skills training to be provided to the maximum extent possible at the work site;
4. counseling and advocacy services;
5. periodic reassessment and alteration of program strategies; and
6. job development and placement.

Intensive supported employment services may be provided for up to 18 months to enable the eligible individual to reach his or her supported employment outcome. The 18 month timeframe begins on the first day the consumer works at the job site which is intended as the individual's permanent placement. It is a cumulative total for the life of the current case, unless, under special circumstances, the individual and the counselor jointly agree to extend the 18 month time to meet the objectives identified in the IWRP.

The source of extended services should be identified at the time that intensive supported employment services are planned during IWRP development. If no source can be identified at that time, but there is reasonable expectation that such a source will become available, then a statement must be included in the IWRP and intensive supported employment services may be provided.

Intensive supported employment services address employment related objectives, such as:

1. learning specific work duties and performance standards;
2. learning formal and informal site-related expectations about adjustment (e.g., time and attendance, dress, communication protocol);
3. acquiring site-appropriate work-related behaviors when dealing with supervisors and co-workers;
4. acquiring a sense of belonging to the work force;
5. understanding and using the benefits of employment (e.g., spending pay, using leave, participating in employee programs);
6. working under the direction of a supervisor, and socializing with co-workers; and
7. developing a community support system that accommodates and positively reinforces the person's role as a worker.

The case should be closed when the individual's work performance plateaus, and the job coaching and related interventions, such as adjustment counseling and advocacy, have faded to the lowest level necessary to maintain the individual in employment, and all parties are satisfied that the individual can maintain the employment outcome. Such individual decisions should be made jointly by the individual supported employee, if appropriate, employer, VESID counselor and the staff in the supported employment program. A general rule is that, when the intervention level fades to 20% or less of the work week for at least three consecutive weeks, the case should be closed. There may be some cases in which more than 20% of job coaching hours per week are required on a long term basis to sustain an individual with a severe disability on the job.

Extended Services are the ongoing support services and other appropriate services provided by appropriate State agencies, private organizations, employers or any other source to assist the individual in maintaining supported employment once intensive supported employment services are completed.