Inside Rehabilitation Counseling
Inside Rehabilitation Counseling
The Intersection of Mental Health and Work with Dr. Xiaolei Tang, PhD, CRC, and Dr. David Strauser, PhD
At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the Illinois Institute for Rehabilitation and Employment Research (IIRER) is a hub for innovation and discovery that addresses vocational behavior, community integration, career development, and employment. Partnering with communities in Illinois and around the world, IIRER is continuously innovating ways to enhance the skills of rehabilitation professionals.
On June 20th, the institute will host its Symposium on Mental Health and Work, providing a unique opportunity for professionals in Illinois and surrounding areas to enhance their knowledge and skills in serving clients with mental health and other health conditions.
The intersection of mental health, work, and disability is a crucial area for researchers and practitioners. Dr. Xiaolei Tang and Dr. David Strauser took the time to share some information about the Symposium and indicate why this type of training is crucial to improving clinical practices.
Register for the 2025 IIRER Symposium on Mental Health and Work on June 20th here.
At the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, the Illinois Institute for Rehabilitation and Employment Research is a hub for innovation and discovery that addresses vocational behavior, community integration, career development, and employment, partnering with communities in Illinois and around the world. I-I-R-E-R is continuously innovating ways to enhance the skills of rehabilitation professionals. On June 20th, the institute will host its symposium on mental health and work, which will provide a unique opportunity for professionals in Illinois and surrounding areas to enhance their knowledge and skills in serving clients with mental health and other health conditions. The intersection of mental health work and disability is a crucial area for researchers and practitioners. Dr. Shale Tong and Dr. David Strauser took time to share some information with me about the symposium and indicate why this type of training is crucial to improving clinical practices. Thank you both so much for joining us here on Inside Rehabilitation Counseling. Um, I wanna start by asking you both , uh, the same question, Dr. Tong . Maybe we can start with you. Um, when did you first learn about rehabilitation counseling as a field, and can you tell me about your journey to where you are today ?
Dr. Xiaolei Tang, CRC:Yeah, thank you, Taylor. Um, I , uh, didn't get to know this field , uh, until pretty later on. Uh, I was born and raised in China. Uh, I did my undergraduate studying accounting in China. Uh , I came to the US for graduate school , uh, studying nonprofit management in Northeastern universities in Boston. That's where , uh, I first landed in this country. I did my internship , uh, at Perkin School for the Blind Water , Tom Massachusetts. And that's where I got my first , uh, experience working with students with disabilities. And I was very more interested in direct service area than the administrative , uh, type of work. Uh, after graduating from my , uh, first graduate school and in nonprofit management, I worked in a private post-secondary special education school , uh, in Massachusetts. Uh, and I felt like I was not, I I was not trained in that area. Of course, I, I didn't know much about working with people with disabilities. Uh , so I was exploring , uh, further educational options. Uh, and my friend taught me about the graduate program at University of Wisconsin Madison . And that's how I started more formal professional training in rehabilitation counseling. Uh, and I, I loved it and I continued on and , uh, here I am.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Thank you. Good to be here. Um, my, my journey started as an undergraduate at UW Madison , where I did all my coursework and had a couple classes related to special ed. Intro to Disability was one, or intro to the Exceptional Child, so it got me exposed to a couple professors in the department at UW Medicine , rehab and Special ed. And I was an education major. And , um, I just ended up crossing paths through classes with some pretty influential professors in my life, like George Wright being prime, one of them . And, you know, it was just one of those times that he, he pulled me aside and he was like, what are you gonna do after school? And I said I was gonna go to a grad school for school, school guidance counseling. And he kind of talked me outta that and talked up the voc rehab piece of it quite a bit, really emphasizing the private sector as an area that I kind of was interested in, got into. And that kind of triggered me to go get my master's degree and then come back and, and get a PhD and pursue work in the, the faculty area. I worked a little bit doing private sector workers' comp, rehabing, California for a couple years, and I really liked that, really enjoyed it, but wanted to get more into the, to the academic side, the research side of it. So, but really it was the faculty at the UW Madison and were pretty influential on getting me into the field and talking me. Uh, I would say specifically, again, George Wright. I think it's always good to have somebody like that kind of in your ear to encourage you to do stuff .
Taylor Bauer, CRCC:Absolutely. Yeah. We hear a lot of times that people come into this profession 'cause a professor kind of pushes them in the right direction, and it's great to hear that , uh, that was the case for you. So the Illinois Institute for Rehabilitation and Employment Research is hosting a one day symposium on mental health and work exploring innovative clinical applications in the private and forensic sectors , uh, that is going to be hosted here in Schaumburg, Illinois, where CRCC is located on June 20th. Could you both provide me an overview of the symposium's goals and what attendees can expect from the content?
Dr. Xiaolei Tang, CRC:Um, yes. Yes. Uh , I'll , I'll go ahead and start. Uh, and Dr. Strauser , feel free to add anything. Um, Dr. Strauser brought this idea to our team, and we started talking about this a while ago. And, and we have spent some q quite some time just discussing what would be the best way to , um, do something to address the needs. Um, and there, there, there is a huge , um, needs avoiding this area , uh, in forensic and , uh, private rehabilitation sector since Covid . Um, and not only because the pandemic has exacerbated the existing challenges in the field, but also we're, we're losing some , uh, reoccurring regular training or professional development opportunities because of restrictions of in-person activities and , uh, lack of resource or decreased level of resource. Uh , we , we thought we should do something as an institute providing trainings and addressing the needs. That's the initial , uh, discussion, the, the motivation of hosting a symposium Lexus . And we're hoping to make this as, as an annual event or even more frequent event. Um , so the , the goal of the symposium is really to provide , uh, rehabilitation professionals , um, particularly in the northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin, maybe even Indiana and Iowa , um, the surrounding areas to get together and to have some targeted , uh, and high quality training sessions , um, addressing some key issues , uh, in , uh, serving clients with mental health , uh, and other health conditions through the lens of work or, or in employment.
Speaker 3:Yeah , just to build on that too, I think Ale indicated , we as an institute recognized we're correcting the assessment that there's a need for training in the greater Chicago metro area outside of just formal training programs to hit practitioners within the field. And there's a very vibrant forensic community in the Chicago, Milwaukee, Rockford area. So, kinda felt that was a good market. And I think as much as mental health is a focus now across a lot of training programs, it's not very often tied into work and how it impacts work and what practitioners need to know about how mental health impacts work, how work impacts mental health, and yet it impacts almost every kind of thing that evoke rehab counselor does. So , um, we felt that this topic is the first one to kind of start out with, would really kind of be a good one to address a need in the community, not only from training availability, but also being a topic that would be relevant to a lot of what practitioners are needing.
Taylor Bauer, CRCC:And, you know, paid employment at a job where an individual feels fulfilled both socially and professionally goes such a long way to improving someone's quality of life. Where do mental health and disability intercept in a way that makes vocational rehabilitation professionals uniquely equipped to secure employment for an individual while also ensuring their wellness? Yeah, I
Speaker 3:Think both rehab counselors are really, really uniquely equipped to this. This is what book Rehab Counseling's about. It's about people's level of functioning and maximizing their functioning and how they interact with the community and environments of their choice, how they interact with work. So rehab counselors are uniquely skilled and uniquely trained to be doing that. And that's a critical piece, as you mentioned, you know, getting connected to the work environment's really important because work gives people purpose, it gives people social connection, it gives people resources , um, it helps symptom management. It helps them just deal with overall stress. Um, conversely, work can be stressful itself too. So we need to understand and be aware that work environments, certain work environments, certain types of work, can also create mental health stress problems and issues. It's different than mental health counseling. Mental health counseling is there to treat the mental health condition, which is certainly viable, certainly critical. Voc rehab focuses more on less diagnostic, less, you know , um, medical based type intervention, focusing more on integration within the community, how people are able to function within their broader community work being a critical part of it.
Dr. Xiaolei Tang, CRC:Also , probably over one of the very few professionals , uh, that , uh, would understand or would , uh, address from the demand side, which would be on the employer's side. And Dr. Strauser did one of the earlier work on demand side , um, so that we understand employer's needs. We understand how employer understand , uh, serving people. Uh, we're hiring people with disabilities. I think that's a very unique capacity that we have , um, working with our clients.
Taylor Bauer, CRCC:Absolutely. Yeah. I think when we think of work as a concept, a lot of people maybe who don't have to navigate a disability, just think of work as like, not really an option, right? Like, you have to make a living to, to exist. And there's maybe, you know, some stressors that come with, with just a , a , a work schedule. But when , when you meet some disability and mental health considerations, you realize how deeply integrated work is to the individual's self , their, their life, their schedule. And when hurdles start to emerge, rather, that's when it becomes very obvious how important work can be to, to somebody's wellbeing. And I think when I talk to people who don't understand, or who have never heard of vocational rehabilitation professionals, there's a lot of those pieces that are interconnected and interwoven that you kind of see the light bulb click, where they're like, oh, yeah, I never really thought of it that way. And then I get to tell them that there's this profession. That research is that , uh, those , uh, connections and those, those ways in which , uh, work and your wellbeing and your wellness and any disabilities you might be navigating are kind of all intertwined. And how do you navigate that? And , and even more importantly, how do you deeply understand how those are connected so that you can move forward in a, in a practical and pragmatic way.
Speaker 3:I think that's really well said. And , um, I would also add to that, I think we underestimate how important a person's identity related to work is. And I think what's really important, we define work, work isn't employment, work is productive activity . So that can be expressed a lot of different ways. And I think that's the key part that drives the benefits or drives the benefits, is that feeling of being productive. Um, employment is a very common expression of work, but I think we need to keep our eyes on the ball too. That work is, is a productive activity. And our vocational identity is really critical to that too. And our vocational di identity is dynamic as people evolve over the course of their life. Rehab counselors are uniquely equipped to deal with that. And that vocational identity is complimentary to other identities that people have. So that , that's a really critical piece to it as well, is that identity development formation and helping people's identity continue to evolve over the lifespan.
Taylor Bauer, CRCC:So the symposium's goal of offering sessions that promote discussion on enhancing clinical practices for both mental health and vocational rehabilitation professionals is so important. One model in particular that is highlighted , um, for the event is the Illinois work and Wellbeing model. Uh, it's explicitly mentioned on the symposium's website, and I'm wondering if you could summarize that model and how it incorporates considerations for all the things we've just been talking about. Work, society, community , um, and, and
Speaker 3:The home. So the Illinois Working Wellbeing model is a model that developed out of our work at the University of Illinois, over 30 years of research and development and service of people with chronic health conditions and disability. Um , really important to PE just people in general. And what the model really highlights is three, the interaction across three major areas, and that is what we call contextual areas, which are derived from the ICF, the international classification of functioning. So lemme just back up. The model is based on two core elements. It's based on the international classification of functioning used by the World Health Organization to operationalize health. And then it's also integrated with core re , uh, career development research related to three major areas of career development. So let me good go to look at , we have what the contextual domain, which is really the ICF framework of looking at how person and environment impacts, how a person functions it , stressing to professionals, researchers, counselors, that, you know , we gotta look at how these personal environmental factors interact, impact functioning. And our research is showing that that functioning is impacted by those areas. And then functioning of itself impacts the second domain area, which is the career domain, which consists of three major areas of, of career development, which are awareness, a person's identity development, their career maturity , uh, acquisition, which is job seeking, being able to get a job, keep a job, find an educational program that meets your needs and your abilities, your interests, and then maintenance, which is can I maintain some connection with the environment? Can I change, evolve, continue to meet the needs of the environment as it grows and changes as new technology comes in, new, new ways of working come in. So that contextual and ac crew domain interact. And then our third domain is, is , uh, participation outcomes, where we look at, again, based on the ICF, where are four domains that people participate, they participate in their home work, society, and personal relationships. And what this model is alluding to is that the interaction between the , the contextual domain and the career domain impact how people participate across those four major areas, or those four factors related to participation. And then the last piece that really kind of been our , our most recent evolution on this is , um, it was always embedded in the conceptualization of the model, but we added it on, and that's wellbeing. Our goal is to really increase wellbeing by increasing participation in the home , uh, work, society and personal. We believe that that also increases a person's overall wellbeing. And , um, we, we look at that as kind of our overall arching outcome is wellbeing. So the model has , um, gained a lot of traction in terms of research. It's been used widely in research, been used in the area of cancer and some other areas in career development. We are now taking that model though, too. And this is what the symposium will do, is put it into a practitioner based toolkit and equip and model that can be used to kind of conceptualize, you know, consumers, clients, individuals that they're working with , and develop treatment planning or intervention planning or resource allocation that can help facilitate the connection across those different domains.
Taylor Bauer, CRCC:Then I think what's so crucial about , uh, voc rehab services is a lot of these things, you know, much of society , uh, communities and even workplaces and the , the , the job market, the working world in general, are not built for people with disabilities who are navigating these functional limitations to participate. So how do you connect them to methods or strategies or , um, conduct assessments to allow them to gain information, to know how to navigate those more effectively and eventually end up in that position of feeling like they're fully integrated. You know, that's part of the, the mission statement at A-C-R-C-C is people deserve fully integrated lives, and that's not just, you know, hopefully they get the most that they can get and we'll call it, you know, good enough. It's really about how do we navigate within these sorts of models and these frameworks paths for people to be able to have the integration into a working life, a, a social life, a community life , um, that anybody who's not navigating a disability would have access to. And I, I think that's very important, and especially for our purposes at C-R-I-C-C of trying to explain why this profession is so impactful. Um, I don't think anybody would argue that being able to go to work and participate in social functions and, you know, go hang out with friends and navigate your community without any , um, major issues is important. And that's not the case for, for millions of Americans. And researching and, and equipping practitioners with a model to be able to connect all these things and , um, address them , I think is just , uh, something that a lot of folks would be very interested in knowing that there's a profession out there doing this work. And , um, as I'm sure both of, you know, when we are talking to people about the work of , uh, CRCs or rehab counselors in general , uh, we get a lot of people who are like, I've never heard of that before. And it's so important with how many of these, these facets of life are integrated and important to all of us. So I appreciate you sharing some insight into that model. Mental health has become a topic we explore and investigate much more publicly in recent years than we have in the past. Given the symposium's emphasis on private and forensic sectors, what connections between mental health and work still need further exploration?
Speaker 3:Our understanding of mental health issues continues to evolve and grow, whether we're talking from a neuroscience perspective , um, um, you know, psychological perspective, environmental perspective, how pharmacology impacts people's functioning , um, genetics. So is , is the science of mental health continues to evolve as vocational rehabilitation professionals, and as work even continues to evolve, we need to constantly be looking at how do the work environments impact people's mental health and how does mental health impact a person's ability to interact with the work environment? And so we have a good understanding of those in some areas, but I think when we really start to look at breaking it down more where research needs to go is the impact of stress on work and mental health , um, how people's perceptions of their own health condition can impact them too, so that they can better manage their condition within the work environments. Uh, how does that , how do we do that effectively and what interventions could possibly be focused in that area? I think helping equip employers with practical research informed, you know, tools to be able to help manage the mental health issues within their own workplace. Minding that most employers , um, are unaware of people's mental health conditions as a whole. And , um, there's probably a lot of employees who are being treated for mental health conditions or dealing with mental health conditions within the workplace. So it's not just people who are coming in from the voc rehab program or asking for some accommodations, it's probably a broader issue in their workforce. So helping employers develop some of those, those understandings and see how effective that is and helping manage workplace retention work , you know, re reduce these absence. And , and then I think also just understanding how we can facilitate vocational behavior change better. How can we continue to improve how people change , um, from a vocational perspective, we have a lot of, a lot of focus right now, understandably and appropriately on clinical mental health, clinical rehab counseling, and how we treat a specific condition. But I think we talked about integration into the community and integration in the workplace. We need to understand how that condition impacts vocational behavior and how we can work with the behavior patterns to change to help people become better situated in a broader environment.
Dr. Xiaolei Tang, CRC:Yeah. Also , just to add on that some, some emerging areas like the, the remote work modality. Um, h how does that impact , uh, someone's , um, wellbeing in terms of being at work , uh, conducting the work? Uh , because moving everything or even part of the work remotely is impacting the social aspects of the work. And we, we need to evaluate the impact on each individual client, and we, we need to know how , uh, some may prefer this way , uh, the lacking of the social aspect, and that provides certain, certain level of accommodation, but , um, but this lacking of , of social aspects in terms of remote working may also be , um, detrimental to, to some people , uh, who , who may need that social aspect. So , um, that part we need to , uh, know how to do the evaluation work and how to communicate with employers as well. Um, and, and the things like , uh, how to serve and work with specific populations, people with specific psychiatric conditions. Um, I think that also , uh, has a lot of room for more research and work and understanding , uh, how do we provide specific support to address behavior issues , um, medical aspects , um, management of the symptoms , uh, and connecting people with all these needs with employers and how to communicate with employers , uh, self-assessment , uh, and such. Um, so these are all some areas that we still need a lot of research on , uh, and consistent trainings for , uh, practitioners across the country serving , uh, this population.
Taylor Bauer, CRCC:Absolutely. Yeah. It's, it's certainly not one size fits all . Um, I know I came across a webinar, it wasn't within the re rehabilitation counseling profession, but I think it was an HR webinar and it was about managing neurodiversity in the workplace. And I just, even from the title, I was like, well, neuro diversity is not just one mental health condition or, or a diagnosable thing, it's, it , it involves a lot of different things that would need specific considerations for being able to support an employee , um, in the way that they need to be supported. And I think it's, it's like you said, it's very important to continue researching all of the specific considerations , um, that are needed to be able to fully support employees. And , uh, Dr. Stressor , you said, you know, employers aren't always really equipped for those sorts of things. Um, I know we're developing some toolkits at CRCC to try to go out and talk to, to employers and say, these are things that you , you need to be equipped to handle , uh, for your employees. Not only because you know of laws that state, you have to be able to accommodate these things, but also if you want to be able to attract talent, you want to make sure that you are supporting your employees in the ways that they, they need to be supported. And , um, obviously our, our position is we'd love a, a certified rehabilitation counselor in every single, major business and, and company in the world. And , uh, you'd have someone on staff, but yeah. How do you maybe partner with folks in your community who offer these services in private practice or, or , um, some something of that sort to be able to understand these things more deeply because you work when they're not working with someone who is fully equipped, like a rehabilitation counselor is to navigate these things, stuff falls through the cracks and unfortunately, employees go without certain , uh, support or services or accommodations that are very vital to their ability to succeed and feel, you know, like they are well supported within a work environment.
Speaker 3:I think, again , you hit right on the head there on what the importance of a rehab counselor is versus a mental health counselor is, is rehab counselors are uniquely equipped to deal with these things within the work environment. It's unfortunate that 20, 30 years ago, 35, 40 years ago, these were areas that were emerging. When we look at work from, like somebody like Rochelle Beck , um, with disability management, some of these things going on, these were evolving things that just kind of become, unfortunately just kind of stagnant and not continue to evolve. And there's really needs there. And I don't think we're, as a field are helping identify employers identify the needs that they have and how important it is to have a trained professional there who understands that integration work component to help maximize their productivity as a company. You know, we, we, we need, we need those types of professionals. And again, I would say rehab counselors can be uniquely equipped when trained in , in a, in a good way to be able to , to deal with those things.
Taylor Bauer, CRCC:Yeah, being able to see things from both the client perspective and also the employer perspective. You know, they're there to serve everyone involved to make sure that , um, everybody's feeling supported and, and connected in a way where everyone's going to get the outcomes that they're looking to achieve. And I think that that's a , a , a huge reason why we need to get the word out there even more about how vital it is to have these people , um, as a part of your, as a part of your team. One path regarding disability and work that presents unique considerations is the experience of acquiring a disability through injury or another factor when it comes to the intersection of mental health and work. What role can , uh, vocational rehabilitation professionals uniquely play in supporting an individual who may be experiencing disability grief?
Dr. Xiaolei Tang, CRC:Um, I , I think , uh, we as , uh, vocational rehabilitation counselors or professionals , uh, we, we can definitely help facilitate the process of grief , uh, whether it's related to the onset of , uh, the disability or like you said, an injury that had happened , um, or , or the subsequent adaptation process or, or both. Uh , it's very complicated, but , uh, uh, people have the misconception of we, we need to , uh, go through , uh, very extensive trainings on providing , uh, grief support. I think , uh, it's different from , uh, providing grief counseling, which will be a mental health rim capacity. Uh, some may be able to with the , uh, appropriate training, but us as vocational rehabilitation professionals, we are equipped , uh, and we should be , uh, providing grief support. Uh, while we're providing service and working individuals with disabilities , uh, we can help facilitate the process , uh, understand , um, the onset process , uh, understand each individual's , uh, adaptation process. And we also need to be very mindful that not everyone , uh, who acquired a disability, they would experience disability grief . Uh, i, I would say it's a perceived loss , uh, I would use that term , uh, 'cause each individual's , um, coping mechanism is different. Uh, and also we need to understand that each individual grieves dif differently, and it's not a , a one time , uh, thing that happened . And it , it can expand at a different phase of people's adaptation process. Uh, and this is not a new concept. I, I view this as part of the psychosocial adaptation process. Uh, Dr. Hanock Liv's psychosocial adaptation model. We adapted from grief model , um, and we already have the early on , uh, theories and models to help us understand this phenomenon. Um, our role really is to , uh, first to validate their grief , uh, not to pathologize it, which is probably a little bit different from , uh, mental health or UHS psychiatry. Um, and , uh, but we view grief as part of the, the natural responses , uh, to life events, not necessarily death related. Um, and , uh, validate their each individual adaptation process. Some people may take longer in , in the hospital accepting the reality of , like , I , I got a spinal cord injury. Uh, some people may take longer transition from home, from hospital to home. Uh , a whole different lifestyle has changed. Um, and it also depends on when , uh, was the onset of the disability. Um, I did my dissertation interviewing , uh, people with acquired disability. And , uh, I've heard stories about , uh, feeling more intense disability grief later in their life , um, when their peers are about to retire, celebrating their retirement. Uh, there's success of, of employment and, and work , uh, a milestone or , uh, friends getting married, having kids, having grandkids. And at those moments, at those life stages , uh, because maybe not just the onset of disability or having a disability, but , uh, people may grieve , uh, and think about the whole from just a life perspective. Um, so , uh, everyone is different. It's, it's important to facilitate that process again. Um, and , uh, it , it doesn't mean that we, when once they, they tell us that , um, they're experiencing disability grief, and they perceive , uh, the loss of the functionality as something that , uh, that they're still adapting to in their life. It doesn't mean that we have to refer 'em to a psychologist or , uh, it is a , uh, flag for mental health issues, but it's more so as , uh, of telling you their life story and validating , uh, where they're right now. I think it's pretty effective of , in terms of establishing the report between you as a practitioner and , um, clients. Um, and , uh, I always advocate for some more reef education be included in our training curriculum , uh, including those classic , uh, more than contemporary models so that we understand grief from just a human natural responses perspective. Instead of , uh, I think some of us had to take , uh, path , um, pathology , uh, uh, psychopathology class and knowing the DSM diagnosis , uh, I think that's, that's not the emphasis of us understanding grief and the theories behind it , uh, but more so , uh, we view it as part of the adaptation process. And , uh, and also just a whole society. I, I always advocate that there's a , the need to view grief differently , uh, just more from a non-pathological perspective so that it is easier for us to talk about grief , uh, to help us facilitate that process. And
Taylor Bauer, CRCC:Yeah, it was a concept that was new to me when I was researching to come up with some questions to talk with you both about. And , um, as I was encountering your dissertation and, and reading about that, it really struck me , um, as somebody who, you know, my father , uh, received an aphasia diagnosis in 2021 and , um, had to leave the workforce and hearing him talk about some of the things he was feeling about that , um, particularly a frustration that from most of his perspective, he felt like he should still be able to work mm-hmm <affirmative> . But it just was something he was, he was a corporate accountant, so it was something that was becoming very difficult for him. And hearing him talk through that a little bit, and then reading some of this , uh, work on disability grief, I was like, that's an entire process. Um, as you mentioned, that isn't the same for every person, and not everyone might go through it at all or to the same , uh, extent, but it was something that really struck me as you're having to take a perceived reality and a and , and a lifestyle and , and things like that. And now shift them in the wake of new limitations that you're experiencing. And , um, of course that has mental health , uh, impacts and , and , and yeah . And , uh, reactions that you feel. And I think it's important to be able to navigate those things with a professional, but it doesn't have to necessarily just be a mental health professional, particularly as you're being able to balance things like mental health and your ability to work or , uh, your ability to potentially return to work with some , uh, alterations or accommodations. And , um, again, that's kind of where rehabilitation counseling is a very specific field , um, that has a unique , um, expertise in dealing with a situation like this.
Dr. Xiaolei Tang, CRC:Yeah. Yeah . Thank you for sharing the story , uh, of your father. And, and I think under disability grief , uh, we work with people who, a lot of 'em have experience of unemployment. So job loss grief is another , uh, specific phenomenon that we probably encounter more often than other professionals. Uh , and that may involve this previous discrimination experience , uh, uh, previous talk , toxic work environment. Uh , again, just going back to what Dr. Strauser said about understanding the work environment, the work culture, and how do we do , uh, preventions , uh, when we're trying to help individuals to get back to work , uh, that's healthy, that's sustainable. Uh, and that's helpful for , uh, just wellbeing.
Taylor Bauer, CRCC:We know that research regarding mental health and disability continues to increase our understanding of how to best support individuals with disabilities in their goal of achieving gainful fulfilling employment. What elements of this symposium's focus are most severely missing from the way that we look at employment and disability? And how can we ensure these essential concepts are integrated more effectively into our communities?
Dr. Xiaolei Tang, CRC:That there are a lot of areas in, in this , uh, area, mental health and work that , uh, needs to be addressed. We , we need to continue to prepare employers. We've talked about this repeatedly , uh, during our time together so far , um, to assess where they're at in terms of understanding specifically mental health , um, mental health of their employees, just in general organizational , uh, environment, and how does that impact , uh, employees mental health. Um, and , um, this will be addressed , uh, by our speakers in different sessions , uh, in the symposium from employers perspective and also , uh, as rehabilitation professionals. Um , but we work with individuals with different conditions, mental health, psychiatric conditions, and we need to be equipped with teaching client with self-management skills. Um, and , um, we're all training different levels of medical aspects of different health conditions. But I think what's lacking is we're not carrying this knowledge over , uh, to our clients. 'cause there are doctors , uh, MD doctors , uh, who are doing , uh, of course that's their focus. Um, and , uh, there is not a very , uh, specific requirement , uh, in most places that this is something that , uh, as part of our job of providing some very , uh, even just basic but uh, uh, helpful self-management skills or recommendations , uh, or resource even. Um, so , uh, this is something that will be addressed in at least one of our sessions. Um, and we also need to understand how to efficiently support our client to not just get a job, but sustain a job That includes assessing work environment, communication with employers, understanding the rights as an employee, understanding , uh, accommodation needs , um, and self-assessment skills. Uh, so , uh, very importantly, our clients come to us. We need to have a , a non-pathological approach because giving a diagnosis is not our focus. We understand diagnosis, we understand what that involves and the behavior indications. Um, but we have a more holistic understanding of the person as a whole, including their social, cultural , environmental context, which will be addressed by the Illinois work and wellbeing model. Um, and we also need to , um, stick with our strengths based approach and maybe even , even broaden it , uh, including normalizing people's experience. Um, like grief. Um , people typically would view grief as a negative , uh, coping mechanism, but I think it, it is, we , we need to change that perspective. It is a normal human , uh, experience just through our, our lens of work and promoting a more , uh, preventative based , proactive approach. Um, I think involving employers , uh, uh, educating our clients and providing , um, hands-on skills and tools to our attendees. Those are some of the themes I think are missing or it's not being addressed enough in this field. And it , it's gonna be provided through our symposium
Speaker 3:Pick up on something that Jelle said in her , in her response. And that is the Illinois model is a really good model to conceptualize the multidimensional nature of the individual, the multidimensional nature of the outcomes that we're looking for in . And the symposium will give people a hands-on , um, template to use to be able to conceptualize that both for clinical , uh, vocational counseling interventions, also wage loss and different things like that. So it becomes a , a model that is, has some flexibility to, it gives a framework for VR counselors, conceptualizing the individual as a whole, that from a holistic perspective.
Dr. Xiaolei Tang, CRC:J just as a reminder , uh, this , uh, upcoming , um, IR r Symposium and Mental Health and Work , uh, we're gonna have pre-approved , uh, CRCC , uh, continuing education credits , um, both general and , uh, ethics. Um, we're also gonna have pre-approved social work, Illinois social work continuing education credits , uh, that can be applied to L-P-C-L-C-P-C , uh, very importantly, we're gonna have breakfast and lunch. Very good breakfast and lunch. Um, and it's gonna be on a Friday. So we really hope to see you there.
Taylor Bauer, CRCC:Thank you to Dr. Tong and Dr. Strauser for that informational and engaging conversation. In the show notes, you can find a link to register for the 2025 I-I-R-E-R symposium on mental health and work taking place on June 20th at the Chicago Marriott Schomburg here in Illinois. If you have any takeaways or insights on topics covered in today's episode, email us at contact us@crccertification.com. Be sure to subscribe to Inside Rehabilitation Counseling on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening to us today. You can find us on Facebook and LinkedIn at CRC Cert , and our website is crc certification.com. Until next time, I'm CRCC, director of Communications and Marketing, Taylor Bauer. Thank you for listening to Inside Rehabilitation Counseling.