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State Rehabilitation Services Tailored to Employment Status Among Cancer Survivors

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Abstract

Purpose. Previous analyses of vocational rehabilitation services for unemployed cancer survivors indicated that counseling and guidance, job search assistance, and job placement services are significantly associated with increased odds for employment. However, many cancer survivors with jobs to return to may require vocational interventions that are different from unemployed cancer survivors. It is unclear whether the public rehabilitation system provides vocational services that are based on the work status of cancer survivors rather than providing the same set of services for all cancer survivors. This study examined whether differences in the types of services were indeed based on the employment status of those with a history of cancer at the time of application. Methods. Administrative data on 1,460 cancer survivors were obtained through the US Rehabilitation Services Administration Case Service Report (RSA-911) dataset for fiscal year 2007. Data on demographic characteristics and vocational service patterns were extracted and analyzed. Multiple discriminant analysis was used to identify differential services received by cancer survivors based on employment status at time of application for vocational rehabilitation services. Results. Results of the multiple discriminant analysis indicated one significant canonical discriminant function, with Wilks’s λ = .92, χ 2(19, N = 1,456) = 114.87, p < .001. The correlations between the discriminating variables and the significant canonical discriminant function were highest for diagnoses and treatment (−.526), job placement (.487), transportation (.419), job search (.403), vocational training (.384), job readiness (.344), university training (.307), and rehabilitation technology (−.287). The group centroids along the significant discriminant function (the distance of each group from the center of the canonical function) indicated that the employed applicant group (−.542) and the unemployed applicant group (.153) can be differentiated based on vocational rehabilitation services received, with the employed applicant group receiving primarily diagnostic and treatment services and rehabilitation technology/job accommodation services, while the unemployed applicant group received more vocational training, job seeking skills training, and job placement services. Conclusions. Employed cancer survivors who are at risk of losing their job and unemployed cancer survivors who are looking for a job receive different vocational services tailored to needs, suggesting that state vocational rehabilitation services for cancer survivors is responsive to individual client needs.

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Acknowledgments

Preparation of this article was supported by the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability Statistics and Demographics (StatsRRTC) at Hunter College, City University of New York, under the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) grant number (H133B080012) and the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Effective Vocational Rehabilitation Service Delivery Practices (NIDRR grant number PR# H133B100034). Contents of this article do not necessarily represent the policy of the US Department of Education, and endorsement by the Federal Government should not be assumed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Rehabilitation Counseling, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, 6011 Harry Hines Blvd, Dallas, TX, 75390-9088, USA

    Chung-Yi Chiu

  2. Department of Rehabilitation and Special Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 403 Education Building, 1000 Bascom Mall, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    Fong Chan & Veronica Muller

  3. Graduate Institute of Rehabilitation Counseling, National Changhua University of Education, No. 1, Jinde Road, Zhanghua City, Changhua County, 500, Taiwan, ROC

    Fong Chan

  4. Department of Kinesiology and Community Health, College of Applied Health Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 116 Huff Hall, 1206 South Fourth Street, Champaign, IL, 61820, USA

    David Strauser

  5. Department of Medical and Clinical Psychology, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, 4301 Jones Bridge Road, Bethesda, MD, 20814, USA

    Michael Feuerstein

  6. College of Psychology, Illinois Institute of Technology, 3105 South Dearborn, Suite 252, Chicago, IL, 60616, USA

    Nicole Ditchman

  7. Hunter College, City University of New York, 695 Park Ave., #1120, New York, NY, 10065, USA

    Elizabeth Cardoso

  8. The Kessler Foundation, 300 Executive Drive, # 70, West Orange, NJ, 07052, USA

    John O’Neill

Authors
  1. Chung-Yi Chiu
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  2. Fong Chan
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  3. David Strauser
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  4. Michael Feuerstein
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  5. Nicole Ditchman
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  6. Elizabeth Cardoso
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  7. John O’Neill
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  8. Veronica Muller
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chung-Yi Chiu.

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 5.

Table 5 Description of vocational rehabilitation services
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Chiu, CY., Chan, F., Strauser, D. et al. State Rehabilitation Services Tailored to Employment Status Among Cancer Survivors. J Occup Rehabil 24, 89–99 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10926-013-9434-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10926-013-9434-0

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