Name of Student: Shiela S.

Badiang
Assignment1: Reaction, Reflection and Synthesis Paper on Elliot and Rath's Rehab Psychology
Chapter

Summary of the Article:

The published article on Rehabilitation Psychology authored by Elliott and Rath (2011),
outlined a comparison between the primary areas and practice in psychology and rehabilitation
psychology as a specialized practice, its definition and areas of concerns, its history and
background, various literature anchored in different areas of psychology, required trainings, and
scope of its practice of rehabilitation psychology.
As pointed out in the article, the primary areas of psychology conspicuously had a strong
foundation in the academe setting while its primary practice of professional psychology originally
focused on mental health. In comparison, rehabilitation psychology was born in the fields of public
and health policy and was among the first specialties in psychology to operate in health care
settings and focus on personal health and optimal adjustment in social, personal, and vocational
roles among people with disabilities and chronic health problems.
The evolution of rehabilitation psychology came across with the history of workplace
safety in the United States during the 19th and early 20th century which ignited the public attention
and federal policies to rehabilitate and reskill injured workers. This was the era where the Industrial
Revolution was the limelight and in part of this industrial advancement, there were gradual shifts
of jobs and work skills that are relatively dangerous which affected the workers. In connection,
psychology was given a role during those early times, but the focus was to address mainly on
vocational rehabilitation for the injured workers. As the industrial revolution continued and
upsurge in the late 19th century in the United States, the rise on the complexity of social issues
relevant to welfare and the economy was indeed recognized, to be specific some of those is the
workers left disabled due to the high rate of industrial accidents, leaving many of those injured
workers with no avenue for rehabilitation or retraining for the workforce. This has brought the
states to finally enact a legislative, Federal Employees Compensation Act of 1908, to assist federal
workers employed in hazardous occupations and those disabled workers. Another legislative act
was also passed, the Smith–Hughes Act of 1917 which provided funds for vocational education
programs and for vocational rehabilitation (VR) programs of the same legislation.
 Further, the aftermath of World War I and II caused the states to even create more policies
to address the needs of returning affected soldiers. For instance, the Soldiers Rehabilitation Act
(1918) provides funds to rehabilitate disabled veterans. It was also in this era where there was a
rapid increase of the need for psychological services. The specialization of medical practice has
also expanded to physiatry which focuses on physical medicine and rehabilitation. In fact, another
legislation was also passed such as Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1954, which was intended to
fund colleges and universities for training rehabilitation services providers and qualified
rehabilitation personnel; central to this aim was to create a field of rehabilitation counseling with
the use of VR model. In connection, rehabilitation counselors became the primary service
coordinator in this act. Though the discipline of psychology has already gained a special spot in
rehabilitation services in early years, its formal acknowledgment and beginning had started during
the first conducted conference in Princeton, New Jersey in 1958 and followed by a second
conference held in Miami to ascertain the significant contributions of the broader areas of
psychology to rehabilitation research and practice. This despite the fact that prior to these
conferences there was already a group of psychologists and counselors who anchored themselves
to the field of rehabilitation and organized as the National Council on the Psychological Aspects
of Disability (NCPAD), which became a special interest group of APA in 1949. These two
conferences were attended by a mix of academicians, clinicians, federal agency administrators,
and representatives from other professions. Attendees from the discipline of psychology were
considered prominent people in their field of specialization. In the end, these significant
conferences had come to the judgment that taking specialization for rehabilitation was indeed not
needed for psychologists, mainly because the discipline is broad which encompasses various areas
to include services concerning rehabilitation. There was a firm conclusion that all branches in
psychology could make meaningful contributions in research, clinical practice, and public policy.
Nevertheless, there was still an emphasis that doctoral-level training in psychology was required
for work in rehabilitation settings, specific tasks for psychologists and limitations were identified.

Reaction, Reflection and Synthesis:

The practice of rehabilitation psychology has already been long recognized. Although the
focus of its services during its early years started on vocational rehabilitation for injured workers
due to industrial revolution and returning soldiers who were affected during World War I and II.
However, now a days, rehabilitation psychology has already found its vital place in the field of
rehabilitation centers, where the provision of services is clearly encompassing that is to assess and
provide intervention on cognitive, emotional, and functional difficulties of people have disability
due to injuries and chronic illness which prevented them to participate in life activities well-
functioned. The appreciation of the importance of psychology and its thriving demands in various
rehabilitation centers has driven those from various specialties in psychology and even from the
academic setting to take training and specialization since the need of the services for rehabilitation
centers are increasing and wide ranging. Psychological perspectives were formally integrated into
the vocational rehabilitation enterprise over a century ago; the ensuing decades and accompanying
sophistication in research and practice intensified the role of psychologists at all levels of decision-
making and service delivery across the rehabilitation service delivery spectrum (Kennedy, 2007).
In the United States, the placement opportunities of rehabilitation psychologists are in a
wide variety of settings such as public and private rehabilitation centers, hospitals, psychiatric or
head injury treatment centers, community mental health centers and even in academic institutions
("Careers in rehabilitation: Rehabilitation psychology," 2017). On the other hand, in the Philippine
setting, services for rehabilitation centers are conspicuously existing both in public and private
organizations and specific intervention programs are uniquely designed for each rehabilitation
center. To mention some common rehabilitation centers in the Philippines are home for the
abandoned elderly, physical therapy centers, mental hospitals, academic institutions for children
and adult with special needs, rehabilitation centers for drug dependents, centers for criminal
offenders, and even children in conflict with the law (CICL) who are adjudged as, having
committed an offence under Philippine laws, and sectoral units for PWDs.
Specific to the concern of PWD, in the Philippines, the results of the 2010 Census of
Population and Housing (CPH, 2010) show that of the household population of 92.1 million, 1.443
million Filipinos or 1.57%, have a disability. Region IV-A, with 193 thousand PWDs, was
recorded to have the highest number of PWD among the 17 regions, while the Cordillera
Administrative Region (CAR) had the lowest number with 26 thousand PWDs. There were more
males, who accounted for 50.9% of the total PWD in 2010, compared to females, with 49.1% with
disability. For every five (5) PWD, one (18.9%) was aged 0 to 14 years, three (59.0%) were in the
working age group (15-64 years old), and one (22.1%) was aged 65 years and above (NSO, 2013).
 To mention some of the Philippine government agencies who have specific programs
related to this writing are DWSD such as sectoral unit which includes the PWDs and people which
underwent hospitalization and CICL programs, DTI which supports to the government’s thrust to
achieve inclusive growth and formulated the Department’s PWD Economic Empowerment
Program to help facilitate integration of PWDs into the mainstream of society. The program
provides the following interventions: (i) enterprise level assistance, (ii) enabling environment, and
(iii) policy advocacy, TESDA and the National Council on Disability Affairs (NCDA) have joined
forces to give free skills training for persons with disabilities (PWDs) nationwide. Institutions from
the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) also promised to help the project in
providing skills training for PWDs. The mandate of the DOH to come up with a national health
program for PWD, this document stipulated that the DOH is required to: (1) institute a national
health program for PWDs, (2) establish medical rehabilitation centers in provincial hospitals, and
(3) adopt an integrated and comprehensive program to the Health Development of PWD, which
shall make essential health services available to them at affordable cost. In response to this, the
DOH issued Administrative Order No. 2006-0003, which specifically provides the strategic
framework and operational guidelines for the implementation of Health Programs for PWDs,
DOLE has also its own program and services which intends to facilitate the integration of PWDs
into the economic mainstream through physical restoration, training for re-employment, or
entrepreneurship, Dep.Ed has also provided an avenue for for learners with disability. The basis
of the mandate of these agencies is the Republic Act No. 7277, “An Act Providing for the
Rehabilitation and Self-Reliance of Disabled Persons and Their Integration into the Mainstream
of Society and for Other Purposes” or otherwise known as “The Magna Carta for Disabled
Persons” and the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of RA 7277.
Having mentioned a lot of services from different agencies, the concerned issue is whether
there is much collaboration and/or partnership with the other agencies or organizations to integrate
other services which may have different and unique services from them. For instance, not all these
agencies have included a program that promotes the positive psyche and other psychological
components for these individuals.
My personal impression as this goes with few literatures in the Philippine context,
rehabilitation psychology though apparent, but is not integrated or perhaps not well integrated to
some of those programs from various centers and agencies. Hence, it is suggested to revisit the
program and services to make it more holistic. The acknowledged association of the country, the
PAP, is also suggested to strengthen its advocacy in order to recognize the essence of rehabilitation
psychology where practitioners and/or experts are expected to be more engaging in this advocacy.
Intensive training for interested practitioners in this specialization should also be made available.

References:

https://www.dti.gov.ph/good-governance-program/persons-with-disabilities-pwd-program/

Careers in rehabilitation: Rehabilitation psychology. (2017, March 2). U.S. Department of

Education. https://www2.ed.gov/students/college/aid/rehab/carpsych.html

Elliott, T. R., & Rath, J. F. (2011). Rehabilitation psychology. Oxford Handbooks

Online. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195342314.013.0026

History of workplace safety in the United States, 1880-1970. (n.d.). https://eh.net/encyclopedia/history-

of-workplace-safety-in-the-united-states-1880-1970-2/#1

Kennedy, P. (2007). Psychological management of physical disabilities: A practitioner's guide.

Routledge.
Mark Aldrich. <italic>Safety first: Technology, labor, and business in the building of American work
safety, 1870–1939</italic>. (Studies in industry and society, number 13.) Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University press. 1997. Pp. xx, 415. $49.95. (1998). The American Historical
Review. https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/103.4.1335

Persons with disabilities. (n.d.). Welcome to Department of Health website | Department of Health
website. https://doh.gov.ph/persons-with-disabilities

Persons with disabilities. (n.d.). Welcome to Department of Health website | Department of Health
website. https://doh.gov.ph/persons-with-disabilities

Rehabilitation psychology. (n.d.).

https://www.apa.org. https://www.apa.org/ed/graduate/specialize/rehabilitation