Rehabilitation Counseling Competencies for Working with Veterans: Delphi Study Findings

Abstract

Civilian clinicians are increasingly involved in working with veteran clients, and the demand for services by civilian providers will continue to rise (Luby, 2012). Likewise, recent rehabilitation counseling research underscores the need to address professional competencies for rehabilitation clinicians working with veterans (Frain, Bishop, Tansey, Sanchez, & Wijngaard, 2013). The present study is a focused empirical investigation of clinical competency training for successful rehabilitation work with veterans with disabilities. The authors report quantitative findings from a Delphi study focused on response data provided by a panel of 16 rehabilitation clinicians with expertise in veteran services. Panelists ranked the importance of 18 professional competencies and provided information about their education, training, and professional development. The most frequently identified sources of expertise in veteran issues were on-the-job training (81%) and personal research/reading (43.8%), indicating that clinical training programs may not provide sufficient training in graduate school on professional competencies required for successful rehabilitation work with veterans with disabilities.