Our Vocational Services

Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling Services to Get You Back to the Life You Deserve.

Eligibility Evaluation

We evaluate a claimant’s eligibility for vocational assistance in accordance with Division 120 of the Oregon Administrative Rules. This includes a thorough analysis of transferable skills, relevant and accurate labor market research, a suitable wage calculation, and substantial handicap to employment assessment. An eligibility recommendation is made based on the documented outcomes of these activities.

Our initial efforts in the process focus on establishing whether permanent modified work with the employer at injury is available, and assist the employer in the activation of Preferred Worker Program benefits before the evaluation deadline.

Job Analysis

We are experts in the evaluation and analysis of the physical demands of any job and are equipped with the necessary tools to accurately accomplish this.

A job analysis includes on-site observations at an active job site, weighing, measuring, obtaining force application requirements, and documenting other physical requirements. Cooley Associates is capable of obtaining aerial video and photographs for specialized assignments, as well as providing fully edited video containing clips and photo sequences demonstrating essential job tasks and functions.

We emphasize collaboration with employers and workers to ensure the most accurate analysis is completed and agreed-upon in a timely manner.

Vocational Assessment

Our counselors are trained in the administration of various testing instruments to aide in the process of assessing a worker’s interests, aptitudes, values, and academic skill levels across multiple subjects.

Testing results are documented and presented to the worker with a thorough summary, coupled with instructions for reviewing and using testing results in the vocational exploration process.

Workers are counseled and otherwise supported in the process, and while counselors make realistic training goal recommendations, the worker is expected to participate and produce his/her own training goal selections.

Optional Services

We provide an array of “optional services” to assist insurers and injured workers in the claims process. These may include the facilitation of various sedentary skills building activities while a worker is in treatment, as well as vocational exploration and assessment.

Optional services can include any vocationally-relevant activities and services the insurer may wish to offer an injured worker but is not required to provide under Oregon Administrative Rules.

Training Plan Development & Implementation

Cooley Associates provides start-to-finish training plan development. This includes vocational assessment and counseling directed toward a primary vocational objective, supported by the worker’s local labor market, that is physically appropriate, and for which the training is attainable within prescribed budgets and timeframes.

Once approved, our counselors oversee and direct training plan implementation, monitor and document the workers progress in training, and facilitate the job development and placement phase of vocational assistance.