Rehabilitation Counselor Education Program

Program Mission
The mission of the Master's Program in Rehabilitation Counseling at Ohio University is to provide quality instruction and supervised experience designed to prepare professional rehabilitation counselors who are committed to facilitating the personal, vocational and economic independence of individuals with disabilities.

Program Objectives
The mission of the Rehabilitation Counselor Education Program at Ohio University is achieved through the following objectives:

Provide students with a high-quality graduate educational program that combines classroom instruction and supervised clinical experiences aimed at the acquisition of skills and the development of competencies related to the provision of services to people with disabilities
Produce research and other scholarly information that is related to promoting the rehabilitation and independence of people with disabilities
Maintain an active relationship to the broader rehabilitation community and related professional associations through consultation, education, advocacy and leadership activities

Curriculum
The master's program in rehabilitation counseling consists of content areas in counseling and rehabilitation. The counseling content area includes coursework in theory and techniques, appraisal, human development, research methodology, and group counseling. The rehabilitation area includes coursework in foundations of rehabilitation, medical issues, psychosocial aspects of disability, and job development and placement. All students must complete a supervised practicum and internship experience. Upon successful completion of the academic requirements in theRehabilitation Counseling program, the Counselor Education program will formally endorse the student for theCertified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC)certification and/or employment appropriate to therehabilitation counseling program. Graduates of the program also may elect to complete additional clinical coursework to be eligible for licensure as Professional Counselors.

Accreditation
The Master's program in Rehabilitation Counselor Education at Ohio University is accredited by the Council on Rehabilitation Education (CORE). By maintaining CORE accreditation, the program strives to provide the highest quality of faculty and curriculum standards.

Program Outcomes
The Rehabilitation Counseling program at the Ohio University is fully accredited by the Council on Rehabilitation Education (CORE) through 2012 www.core-rehab.org The masters degree program is a full-time program (FTP) and has a goal of admitting 10-15 students each fall in the graduate cohort on the main campus. The next class will be admitted in fall 2012. In 2007, for the first time in our history, we admitted 20 rehabilitation counseling students to our regional campus program. Ninety-five percent of the students graduated in the 2010 from Ohio University-Chillicothe cohort. In 2011, we admitted 25 rehabilitation counseling students to the Ohio University-Lancaster regional cohort. Currently, 18 students are on target to graduate in May 2013. Student outcomes are evaluated each year on a variety of different metrics that are part of the overall program evaluation.

Currently, the graduate rehabilitation programs have a total of 40 students. The program has six full-time tenure-track faculty, 2 part-time emeriti, and 4 part-time adjunct faculty who teach the CORE accredited curriculum. We are in the process of hiring a full-time adjunct position to replace a faculty member that left at the end of the 2010-2011 academic year. This position will teach in addition to the current tenure-track and adjunct faculty. The instructor to student ratio is 10:1. The average instructor rating for rehabilitation counseling courses for the 2010-2011 academic year is 6.50/7.00. The current grade point average of the students in the program is 3.85.

For the 2010-2011 academic year, a total of 4 students graduated from the program. 100% of students passed their clinical coursework. During the same 2010-2011 academic year, none of the graduates took the Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC) exam www.crccertification.com. A hiring in freeze for the state agency and overall decline in rehabilitation counseling jobs attributed to this trend. However, 100% of the graduates are employed or pursuing advanced academic degrees.

About twenty percent of the students are from underrepresented groups, including people with disabilities. The program has a total of approximately 105 quarters of university assistantships for a total of $519,495 each year in student stipend and tuition support.

The Ohio Counselor, Social Worker and Marriage and Family Therapist Board does not accept the CRC exam to become licensed as a Professional Counselor. However, OU graduates take the licensure classes as part of the rehabilitation counseling curriculum and therefore are eligible for licensure. Of the OU graduates who take the NCE (Ohio PC licensure exam), 100% pass the exam and become licensed in Ohio as professional counselors, 30% work in employment settings where a license is not required (Public School System, Veteran’s Administration, Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission), and 70% move to a different state or outside the country.

For more information, please contact:
Mona Robinson, Ph.D., PCC-S, LSW, CRC
President, Ohio Rehabilitation Association
Associate Professor, Program Coordinator, Counselor Education
McCracken Hall 203
740.593.4461, office
740.593.0477, fax
robinsoh@ohio.edu