The purpose of this paper is to explore the context of injury and its consequences for the vocational rehabilitation of Australian workers. This report was derived from a secondary analysis of the seventh national survey of Work-Related Injuries by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. This is a stratified, random, multiple household survey of 42,100 private dwellings. Work-related injury affects 1 in every 25 of those who had worked at some time in the last 12 months. There were high probabilities of a workplace injury for those in labouring-type jobs and workers who exceeded 35–39 hours per week. Occupational injury is heterogeneous in nature and but there is clearly a restriction in the range of clientele encountered in rehabilitation. A second implication for professional rehabilitation arises from the type of injury. Work-related injuries in Australia are dominated overwhelmingly by musculoskeletal conditions. Work-related injury is a major cause of disability and there are consistently large numbers of people each year that will be requiring some vocational rehabilitation services.

Acceptance of chronic pain is associated with positive health outcomes. The study examined participants’ chronic pain experiences by exploring two acceptance factors: pain willingness and activity engagement. Eleven participants (seven women and four men) participated in semi-structured interviews. Interview transcripts were analysed to identify pain willingness and activity engagement in participants’ experiences. The study found that participants demonstrated some pain willingness and activity engagement, but that avoidance and control could result in unwanted activity restrictions. Three themes were identified in participants’ accounts of getting on with their lives: making necessary adjustments, taking control and finding purpose and meaning. To improve outcomes for people with chronic pain, counsellors and rehabilitation professionals should encourage pain acceptance, and educate their clients about the effects of social withdrawal, and avoidance and control of pain.

Objective: To evaluate the measurement structure of the Taiwanese Version of the Job Satisfaction of Persons with Disabilities Scale (JSPDS). Design: A quantitative descriptive research design using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Participants: One hundred and thirty-two gainfully employed individuals from Taiwan with poliomyelitis participated in this study. Results: EFA result indicated a three-factor structure accounting for 54.1 per cent of the total variance. The internal consistency reliability coefficients for the integrated work environment, job quality, and alienation factors were 0.91, 0.77, and 0.59, respectively. Only the integrated work environment and job quality factors showed positive correlations with life satisfaction. People with higher educational attainment also reported higher levels of job satisfaction than people with lower educational attainment. Conclusion: The three-factor measurement structure of the JSPDS appears to be parsimonious, psychologically meaningful, and interpretable, and can be used to improve the comprehensiveness of vocational rehabilitation outcome evaluation.

The purpose of this study was to test the usefulness of the attribution model (Corrigan, Markowitz, Watson, Rowan & Kubiak, 2003; Weiner, 1995) in a Chinese cultural context to explain Chinese college students’ perceptions of discrimination toward people with mental illness. A total of 293 college students (male = 142; female = 151; age from 18 to 22) completed an Attribution Questionnaire (AQ) after reading vignettes, consisting of a male who either used illicit drugs or had a traumatic brain injury. Data were analysed using a hierarchical regression to determine the amount of variance accounted for in discriminatory behaviours by the attribution model. The results showed, when controlling for all other factors, that controllability and the three emotions (pity, anger, and fear) were found to be significant predictors of discrimination. The relationship between controllability, responsibility, and discrimination was not consistent with the attribution model since responsibility did not mediate the controllability of cause. These results provide support for the idea that disability attributions are culturally influenced.

Supervision is a widely recognised component of counsellor training, yet little is known about the clinical supervision training of rehabilitation counsellor educators during their doctoral education. Using syllabi from doctoral rehabilitation counselling programmes, this article discusses the state of clinical supervision in doctoral-level training, and its teaching and clinical implications. 16 of the 25 Ph.D. programmes in rehabilitation responded to contact, and 11 programmes reported offering a course in supervision. Eight of these programmes shared the syllabus for their doctoral-level supervision course(s). The syllabi were analysed to find common themes related to content, learning objectives, assignments and readings. These themes are discussed, and are followed by five recommendations on the manner in which clinical supervision should be provided in rehabilitation doctoral programmes.