Disability and Vocational Rehabilitation in Rural Settings : Challenges to Service Delivery

This first-of-its-kind textbook surveys rehabilitation and vocational programs aiding persons with disabilities in remote and developing areas in the U.S. and abroad. Contributors discuss longstanding challenges to these communities, most notably economic and environmental obstacles and ongoing barriers to service delivery, as well as their resilience and strengths. Intersections of health, social, structural, and access disparities are shown affecting rural disabled populations such as women, racial and sexual minorities, youth, and elders. In terms of responses, a comprehensive array of healthcare and health policy solutions and recommendations is critiqued with regard to health, employment, and service effectiveness outcomes.

Included among the topics:

• Healthcare initiatives, strategies, and challenges for people with disabilities in rural, frontier, and territory settings.
  
• Challenges faced by veterans residing in rural communities.
  
• The Asia and Pacific region: rural-urban impact on disability.
  
• Challenges after natural disaster for rural residents with disabilities.
  
• Meeting the needs of rural adults with mental illness and dual diagnoses.
  
• Capacity building in rural communities through community-based collaborative partnerships.
  

Disability and Vocational Rehabilitation in Rural Settings makes a worthy textbook for graduate students and upper-level undergraduates in the fields of social work, community and environmental psychology, public health, sociology, education, and geography. Its professional audience also includes vocational rehabilitation counselors serving these dynamic populations.

Noel A. Ysasi, Ph.D., CRC, is an Assistant Professor in the Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling Mental Health program at the University of Kentucky. He acquired his Ph.D. from the University of Texas Pan-American. Dr. Ysasi’s professional work experience involves over seven years of teaching in higher education; forensic rehabilitation; working with the veteran population. His research interests include the veteran population, people with spinal cord injuries, forensic rehabilitation, and perceptions of individuals with disabilities. Dr. Ysasi has been the recipient of multiple awards, including a LifetimeAchievement Award by the U.S. Veterans Affairs, and the 2015 national doctoral student awards by the national Council on Rehabilitation Education and the American Rehabilitation Counseling Association. 

Malachy L. Bishop, Ph.D., CRC, is a Professor in the Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling Mental Health program at the University of Kentucky. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Bishop is the coordinator of the Rehabilitation Counseling Education, Research, and Policy Doctoral Program. He also serves as Director of Development and Research for the University of Kentucky’s University Center for excellence in Developmental Disabilities in the Human Development Institute. Dr. Bishop’s clinical background includes rehabilitation counseling, rehabilitation psychology and neuropsychology in physical medicine and rehabilitation and other health care settings, and vocational assessment. Dr. Bishop has authored over100 journal article and book chapters and two books in health care and rehabilitation counseling. He conducts research psychosocial and employment-related aspects of chronic neurological conditions, including epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and brain injury; quality of life and adaptation to disability; self-management; and developmental disabilities. Dr. Bishop is a five-time recipient of the American Rehabilitation Counseling Association’s Research Award, and the 2015 recipient of the National Council on Rehabilitation Education Researcher of the Year Award.

Allison R. Fleming, Ph.D., CRC, is an Assistant Professor in the Human and Rehabilitation Services program at Pennsylvania State University. She received her Ph.D. from Michigan State University. Dr. Fleming’s professional experience includes work as a vocational rehabilitation counselor, a staff trainer for RCEP, and faculty in rehabilitation counseling at the University of Kentucky. Her researchinterests include the application of the International Classification of Functioning to the conceptualization of quality of life among individuals with disability, professional identity in rehabilitation counseling, and post-secondary and employment outcomes for young adults with disabilities.