Articles from prior issues of The Advocate

September/October, 1997

What Does Screen-In Really Mean?
by Maureen Halsey-Wright, Kentucky DDS

ON JANUARY 14TH VOCATIONAL COUNSELORS Mindy Yates and Helen Martin explained referral and treatment procedures for those claimants we have screened-in for VR. Their main goal is to help those with disabilities to get and keep jobs. In order to qualify for VR services, a person must have a disability which has an impact on their employment yet they must still have the potential to do some type of work. VR can offer educational and/or occupational training, assistive medical devices, medical treatment, job placement and job coaching as well as many other services. They can also redesign jobs and provide the technology so that those with disabilities can perform them. One excellent program they offer is community based work adjustment. They place a worker in a job and provide a job coach to assist the person in adjusting to the world of work. The job coach acts as a liaison between the client and the employer for about six weeks or until the client has become fairly independent in their job duties. This frees the employer from the task of training and allows the job to be done more efficiently. VR also offers support employment which provides longer term job coaching. All of the DDS screen-ins to VR go through a central VR office where they are separated out to each of the 16 districts in the state. All Allowances MUST be contacted by VR. They send out letters and make calls to schedule an appointment. VR does its best to work with these claimants to get them back into the workforce. VR has the option to contact our denial screen-ins. They are not obligated to do so, as they are with allowances. They do, however, make every effort to reach as many as possible. A plan to stop sending denial referrals is under current investigation. These claimants would get VR referral information in their denial notices and it would be their choice when or if to contact VR. Of the approximately 16,000 referrals we made to VR last year, about 5,000 were allowances. Keep up the same screen-in system until you are notified of any new changes. If you are speaking to a claimant and want to tell them about VR, you can give them the 800 number to call themselves. 1 800 372-7172. Those of us attending this educational session left there much more informed about VR and what happens to our screen-ins.