Affiliations: Department of Rehabilitation Counseling, School of
Allied Health Professions, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA,
USA
Note: [] Address for correspondence: Dr. Allen Lewis, POB 980330,
Richmond, VA 23298-0330, USA. Tel.: +1 804 827 0914; Fax: +1 804 828 1321;
E-mail: anlewis@vcu.edu
Abstract: The public vocational rehabilitation (VR) system in the United
States faces many challenges in the 21{st} century. To prevail amid such
challenges, rehabilitation professionals will need to embrace several specific
skills (anticipating change, engaging in more generative than adaptive learning
to make rehabilitation organizations true "learning organizations" and
adoption of a comprehensive ecological framework for planning VR system
change). As a preface to understanding these skills, this paper discusses the
current developmental stage of the public VR system, followed by lessons
learned in its first century of existence, as well as some logical propositions
about the future of VR.
Keywords: Rehabilitation professionals, change, systems success, future, skills
