Vocational Rehabilitation

Vocational Rehabilitation
Yesterday was my appointment with Voc Rehab. I made the appointment at the suggestion of a friend who was once in a similar position as I am. I do not know about other states, but Missouri has a Vocational Rehabilitation department that is a sub-department of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Voc Rehab is a tax payer funded department that exists to help persons with disabilities find employment. They offer Physical and/or Occupational Therapy, on the job training, assistive devices to enable you to work- such as help purchasing or completely purchasing wheelchairs, lifts, prosthetics, specialized devices or software, and other such items as would make it possible for the disabled to obtain and sustain gainful employment. For instance, because my fingers dislocate, become cramped and are very painful when I attempt to type for longer than short periods with longer rest periods, they would purchase Dragon Naturally Speaking software for me. That would allow me to still ‘type’ letters and emails, but by speaking instead of using the keyboard.
I reported a few minutes early for my appointment and waited in the lobby with 5 others waiting for the group orientation. When the time arrived they lead us all to a conference room and gave a slide show presentation on what Voc Rehab does, how and for whom. After than we were met with individually by the counselors, so that no one had to disclose personal information in the group setting, while waiting our turns, one of the other 5 decided to just up and leave. It was a mother and son, the son was the one seeking help, but the mother seemed to be running the show. She decided, and announced loudly to those of us still in the room after the counselors had left, that this was a total waste of time.
When my turn came I met with the district supervisor. He was a very nice fellow, around my age and obviously intelligent. He asked for my pre-filled out paper work, glanced it over, then began asking me questions. Mostly his questions were regarding EDS, as expected, since most people do not even know what it is. After about 20 minutes of Q & A he stated that there really wasn’t much he could do for me at this point. He said that I should seriously consider applying for SSD and once on SSD to come back and see him again. He stated that because of the numerous restrictions they would have to ask for from a potential employer, they would need to have the back up support of me being on SSD to justify it. Also, because it is partially income based and David makes more than the maximum limit, they wouldn’t be able to help with much of anything other than job placement. Effectively one cancelled out the other. However, if you are on SSD, all of the income guidelines are automatically dismissed. So, for me to get maximum benefit from Voc Rehab I need to get on SSD.
When (and if) I get on SSD, then they can help me in all of the ways they offer. He also explained that there is an option with SSD that is basically a “work incentive”. If you want to work, you can earn up to $900 a month without it affecting your SSD benefit amount. With the additional work incentive, however, you can actually make more than that. Essentially what the work incentive is, is a form that Voc Rehab fills out and submits to SSD for you. On this form they list what it costs for you to actually be able to work. In my case, they would figure an amount for the maintenance on my wheelchair, maintenance on my lift, braces, extra medications, etc. Once SS approved it then I could actually get a job earning the $900 minimum PLUS the amount of the work incentive and not loose my SSD benefits. He figured with this set up, I could be making a month nearly what I was making working full time.
I will write more later, I’ve worked on this periodically all day long and now my fingers are just too tired. Lol. TH