Vocational Counselors Can Help You Get Back to Work
Vocational Counselors provide caseload management and direct delivery for a range of vocational rehabilitation services and can help you get back to work. They assist with client evaluations, counseling, and guidance, employment goals, job replacement and retention, and much more.
Meet Sofia Godinez, B.A., CDMS, a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor who works with NWRTW, and Jeanne Carbonetti, CRC, CLCP, a Mental Health Counselor for NWRTW. These two women work with clients in different ways, but both provide support and guidance. Helping clients better understand their strengths, capabilities, and disability-related barriers to employment.
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Sofia Godinez, VRC -
Jeanne Carbonetti, CRC, CLCP
Their number one goal? To help injured workers to get out of a ‘disability mindset,’ and focus on how to get back to work. They promote self-reliance and informed choice, and assist in identifying the steps and services required to achieve a positive employment outcome
How Do They Help?
A Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor (VRC) provides professional counseling, guidance, and other vocational rehabilitation services to clients with substantial disability barriers to clients who require services to achieve and/or maintain employment after an injury. Basically, they are at the center of all the services provided to an injured worker. They help them better understand the Worker’s Compensation System, they work with all stakeholders in a claim and help the doctors, specialists, and therapists understand the client’s complete plan of care.
They provide resources to the injured worker and help them navigate their claim. Eliminating financial or mental stress. They can communicate directly with providers, L&I, employers, even attorneys. They work with all aspects of an injured worker’s claim.
Why Is It Important for Everyone to Work Together?
When someone is injured at work it can be a very stressful and confusing time, particularly if the injury was significant and/or resulted in any psychological difficulties. It’s important to have a team on your side who can help you navigate the system. Vocational Counselors and other counselors do just that.
“I have over 10 years of experience being a claims manager, care coordinator, and now a Vocational Counselor,” explains Sophia. “I understand where everybody is coming from, and our goal is to always focus on putting the injured worker first.”
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