School
Sheltered Workshops
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There exist a controversy about the proper function and future role of sheltered workshops. Once used as a long-term placement of an individual with disability, many programs now utilize sheltered workshops as a place for evaluation and development of appropriate work tolerances so that a transition to supported or competitive employment might be made.
Individuals with severe brain injury may not have skills or behaviors seen as compatible with community-based employment. Utilization of a sheltered workshop to work on the necessary skills and behaviors for work may provide a friendly, safe atmosphere for long-term evaluation of complex behaviors.
Since passage of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1955, sheltered workshops have been recognized as training programs supported by the federal and state government. Sheltered workshops are exempt from minimum wage provisions and the Fair Labor Standards Act. Some individuals with acquired brain injury may find placement in a sheltered workshop not to their liking. Low wages and the “institutionalization” of the sheltered workshop find many individuals frustrated with the use of the sheltered workshop as long-term job placement. Generally, however, the sheltered workshop is not used for long-term placement but rather as an opportunity for the individual with brain injury to again, or for the first time, acquire work skills. If a sheltered workshop is to be utilized as a training ground or an assessment site for the individual with brain injury, goal identification of the obstacles to competitive employment should be identified when the individual with brain injury enrolls in the workshop.
Additional considerations for sheltered workshop participation include, but are not limited to, the following:
- What behaviors, skills or aptitudes are areas of concern that result in sheltered workshop participation?
- How often will the client’s participation in the workshop be evaluated?
- Is the workshop considered a transitional program to community employment?
- What disability populations does the workshop serve?
- Does the person with disability understand his placement in the workshop?
- How are the individuals in the workshop paid?
- What services are provided in the workshop, i.e.,
- Meals
- Transportation
- Counseling
- Vocational evaluation
- Stamina building
- Physical capacity evaluation
- Behavior management
- Behavior modification
- Visual cueing
- Compensation
- High school diploma preparation
- College courses
- Consumer/client committees
Sheltered workshops should not be used as permanent job placement outlets for people with brain injury unless all possibilities for community job placement have been exhausted. Sheltered workshops for persons with brain injury may be appropriate long-term placement avenues if disinhibition, aggression, inability to attend to the task at hand or memory deficits (for example) are severe and appropriate work sites in the community cannot be identified. This may require multiple attempts at behavior management and use of counseling, reward systems, and medication management. The sheltered workshop should have access to psychologists, physicians, case managers, and behavior modification specialists skilled at working with individuals with brain injury.
The sheltered workshop can be a useful tool in the rehabilitation of an individual with brain injury. Generally it should be seen as one of those evaluations that aid the Rehabilitation/Vocational Counselor in working with the person who is brain injured.
Ms. Willard is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC), Certified Vocational Expert (VE), Certified Disability Management Specialist (CDMS), Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), and Certified Case Manager (CCM). She serves as a vocational expert for the Office of Hearings and Appeals, Social Security Administration. Her company, Willard Rehabilitation, Inc. provides rehabilitation evaluations to assist individuals in developing life goals, rehabilitation plans and vocational options compatible with physical, cognitive, and or psychological abilities.
Resources
May Institute, Rehabilitation
Childhood Trauma and the Council for Exceptional Children
Tufts - New England Medical Center
National Pediatric Trauma Registry