Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697643525803.pdf (Australia)
Inquiry into the Hearing Health and Wellbeing of Australia, Additional material being submitted in response to a question on notice by the Inquiry to ASORC at its recent public hearing in Sydney on 6 April 2017.

Question was - Are Rehabilitation Counsellors are able to claim through Medicare and be part of teams that provide GP care plans?
Rehabilitation Counsellors (RCs) provide a critical role in supporting an individual to manage their disability and to re-integrate into their communities or participate in meaningful employment.

RCs have unique expertise in holistically assisting people, with disability, to make critical and necessary psycho-social and vocational adjustments to enable a safe and durable resumption of normal community living and participation, maximising their independence.
Specific RCs have additional expertise in pain management, trauma counselling and the management of particular disabilities such as hearing and serious injuries.

RCs differ from other allied health professionals because of their specific expertise in disability and rehabilitation counselling, as their work is situated in, and informed by, the processes of adaptation to physiological and psychological changes, social identity, work, family and broader social functioning.
Moreover, RCs bring critical skills to the community of illness and injury as their expertise centres around a case management framework, thus ensuring guidelines and objectives are met.

Central to the everyday work of RCs is their interaction with a wide variety of medical and allied health practitioners, including medical specialists, GPs, and a range of allied health professionals.
Thus RC’s possess a broad scope of skills, expertise and medical knowledge to adopt to and tailor the provision of individualised services or assistance to clients to achieve clients and framework requirements.

Their work entails the development, management and monitoring of care plans, work that centres on, and provides direct support to General Practitioners to achieve their therapeutic goals set for their patients.
However, the effective and efficient delivery of community-based RC services has often been hampered because RCs are yet to be granted formal recognition under Medicare, as has been the case for example with Mental Health Social Workers and GPs are largely unaware of RC skills and services.

Historically, RCs’ primary work emerged from the management of injury in the workplace however, over time, their roles have grown to address disability management in the wider community.
With populations living longer and with increased experience of disability and changing labour market, the importance of RCs in general community role will increase over time.
While OTs, for example, may focus on the practical adaptation of the home or workspace the clinical psychologist may work individualistically in the diagnosis and psychological treatment of mental, behavioural function, and PO Box H189 Hurlstone Park NSW 2193 Telephone: 1800 643 155 E-mail: admin@asorc.org.au www.asorc.org.au ABN 81 442 528 153 ACN 616 971 138 Inquiry into the Hearing Health and Wellbeing of AustraliaSubmission 23 - Supplementary Submission 1 and emotional illnesses, RCs roles are very much focused on enabling people to re-take their place in the world following the experience of a significant trauma, or gradual onset impairment, that resulted in physical, sensory or psycho-social disability.
Given the significant reduction in the labour market across Australia and an ageing workforce with increasing injuries and disabilities RCs play a pivotal part in enabling Australians to recover and enter community or employment in a productive manner.

In addition to Allied Health service we also provide career counselling and employment advice/assistance and we successfully place people into employment.
By having RCs working with an individual we are able to work in a holistic, uninterrupted manner and guide their recovery from medical to vocational outcomes.

Treatment is defined as: “medical care given to a patient for an illness or injury”.

RCs are providing care to individuals that is unique when compared to other existing providers under Medicare.
RCs can assist in facilitation of comprehensive and proactive medical care under the guidance of medical and allied health professionals, currently registered for Medicare, and also provide extension to this service by focusing on vocational outcomes.

The ageing of both Australia’s population and the health-care workforce adds a level of urgency for the role of RCs to be formally recognised and supported within Australian medical health delivery systems nationally.
2 Inquiry into the Hearing Health and Wellbeing of AustraliaSubmission 23 - Supplementary Submission 1