Work, for most people with psychiatric disability, is their most important goal and yet they often have more difficulty getting work and maintaining work than other disability groups. Six focus groups were held with consumers of mental health services to explore the reason for this and identify what rehabilitation services should do about this problem. The groups recommended many strategies which have been divided by the authors into three rehabilitation phases. Three check lists have been developed to assist service providers address the range of needs with consumers during the rehabilitation process and to identify service gaps.

As most older adults with intellectual disabilities reside in community based accommodation, the availability of support programs and services becomes important to the maintenance of independent living. Thirty nine community based organisations in Brisbane, Australia that assist people with intellectual disabilities were surveyed regarding the types of programs offered to older adults with intellectual disabilities. The results showed that 75% of the organisations had provided assistance to an older adult with an intellectual disability in the past 12 months. However, none of the agencies surveyed reported that they provided specialised programs or services to older adults with intellectual disabilities.

Encouraging rehabilitation counselling practitioners to enter the arena of journal-writing is an ongoing concern of the profession. This article intends to help authors, especially practitioners who have not submitted previously, organise research materials for writing articles. A model of organising standard components of a professional journal article is presented and discussed. The guidelines presented also provide a summary of the manuscript format and editorial review process. Suggestions presented provide a basis for assisting the rehabilitation counsellor practitioner who is considering writing a journal article.

The increase in students with disabilities in Australian tertiary education settings has placed significant stress on institutions to provide adequate and appropriate support. Disability liaison officers have the responsibility on many Australian campuses but little is known about their training needs and concerns. This study surveyed disability liaison officers about their training needs and concerns. The majority of respondents indicated a need for availability of further training as well as concerns related to the resources available to adequately support students with disabilities. There is a need for the development of appropriate training and for policies that enable adequate resourcing of students with support needs.

Occupational stress has become a critical issue for many organisations and individuals in terms of costs to productivity and health. Effective rehabilitation intervention can markedly reduce these costs, yet a successful return to work is often fraught with difficulty due to the plethora of issues contained under the heading of occupational stress. An approach to case analysis and individual assessment has been developed in New South Wales, Australia to assist case managers employed by the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Service in the provision of efficacious rehabilitation programs, with the focus on return to work, for individuals with occupational stress.

Organisational restructuring is a pervasive strategy employed by organisations in Australia in response to changes in market competition and/or policy directives. Such restructuring often involves staff redundancies and increased demands on the remaining employees. This paper identifies important issues for workplace rehabilitation programs in response to this phenomenon of organisational restructuring. The paper notes the impact of organisational restructuring on clients in workplace rehabilitation programs and the types of issues rehabilitation professionals are likely to face at this time. A particular focus is the aspect of managerial behaviour during the process of change and the paper reports from a range of studies on employee well-being, managerial bullying and coercion in the context of organisational restructuring. Considerations for the rehabilitation professional include the need to understand communication issues, identify those at risk, and maintain the natural supports during the change program. Suggestions are given for convenors of workplace rehabilitation programs to actively collaborate with the human resource function of the organisation and disability management is outlined as a useful example of such strategies.

The Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test (RBMT) is reviewed and its utility in rehabilitation settings is explored. The RBMT purports to be “ecologically valid” — a test of everyday memory. It is concluded that the RBMT is quick and easy to administer, is available to a range of health professionals, and has high face validity as a measure of everyday memory performance. However, the normative sample obtained was relatively small, limited age-norms were provided, it did not assess incremental learning and there was a tendency to obtain a ceiling effect in non-clinical groups. Additional normative data have been reported by others. The RBMT is most likely to be useful in acute rehabilitation or with more impaired clinical groups and is recommended as a useful tool for the assessment of memory impairment.

The rapid development of the profession of rehabilitation counselling in Australia during the past decade has been accompanied by a high level of staff turnover. This qualitative study identifies the aspects of the work of rehabilitation counsellors that contribute to job satisfaction and occupational stress. The issues identified by subjects can be categorised as aspects of the rehabilitation systems and aspects of the employing organisation. It was concluded that employers of rehabilitation counsellors should develop strategies to enhance job satisfaction and minimise occupational stress in order to reduce staff turnover.

When a family member acquires a brain injury the family as a whole is likely to experience severe emotional stress and strain in coping with and adjusting to the injured family member. Longitudinal studies of family adjustment have shown that families find it increasingly difficult to cope with the brain injured family member as the time (years) since injury increases. The increasing difficulty family members experience in coping with their brain injured relative led several researchers to investigate the needs of family members. Research investigating family needs after brain injury is limited to the first couple of years post trauma despite the finding that stress and burden continue to increase as the years progress. This paper reviews family needs research over the last three decades and provides a discussion of family needs and surrounding issues relevant to rehabilitation professionals.

This paper describes the particular circumstances which apply to the maritime industry in the area of occupational rehabilitation. Specific areas arising out of the maritime industry which also apply to the rehabilitation area generally are raised through consideration of the case management process in operation within the maritime industry.