Rehabilitation Facilities: Preparing for the 21st Century (1992)

The Switzer Memorial Seminar, an NRA program, is designed to bring together a small number of experts in the area of rehabilitation that is the focus of each year's seminar. The experts serving the betterment of persons with disabilities,are designated as SWITZER SCHOLARS by certificate, and this recognition has become a significant and prestigious achievement for those in vocational rehabilitation, both nationally and internationally. The end-product of the three-day program is a published Monograph of the proceedings, including recommendations for future programming, research, training, and legislative needs. The format is designed for use by counselors, consumers, employers, researchers, educators, policymakers, or anyone interested in the rehabilitation of persons with disabilities. Over the years the Switzer Monographs have been widely used by counselor educators at the university level, rehabilitation counselors, consumers, advocates and multi-disciplinary professionals. These special Seminars are named for the late Mary E. Switzer, America's foremost leader and trailblazer for innovative programs at the national, State and local levels for people with disabilities. For more than thirty years her influence was felt in the area of Vocational Rehabilitation as head of the Rehabilitation Services Administration and the Social and Rehabilitation Services of the then U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. The Switzer Memorial Committee of NRA was started by colleagues and friends of the late Mary E. Switzer, including key members of the Congress, Secretaries of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare and the Department of Labor, and private citizens interested in the rehabilitation of people with disabilities. The Seminar The 16th Mary E. Switzer Memorial Seminar was held in Washington, D.C. June 10-12, 1992 and was hosted this year by the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities (PCEPD). The topic of the Seminar was: Rehabilitation Facilities: Preparing for the 21st Century. As the late Mary E. Switzer noted in 1963, Few aspects of rehabilitation have been as dramatic as those found in centers. There, rehabilitation can be seen step by step in a way that permits no doubt as to the value to the people served, or the dedication and skill of those who serve them. Many of the advances in rehabilitation have found early demonstration in centers with the result that the pace of progress increased and became more pronounced. (Mary E. Switzer, 1963) Much has happened in the field of Vocational Rehabilitation since those words were spoken by that early pioneer in Rehabilitation. The current Seminar took an in-depth look at facilities as they are currently and where we need change in this dynamic society as preparations are made to meet future demands and challenges in the facilities movement in the nation. Welcomes were provided to the Switzer Scholars by this year's host, Richard Douglas, Executive Director, President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities; Ann W. Tourigny, Executive Director, National Rehabilitation Association, the administrator of the Switzer Memorial Seminars; and Carl E. Hansen, Chairperson of the Switzer Seminars. The Honorable Nell C. Carney, U.S. Commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA), provided the keynote address to the Scholars. Commissioner Carney stated, It is appropriate for this sixteenth Switzer Memorial Seminar to focus on the role of rehabilitation facilities in the delivery of rehabilitation services because we know facilities are essential to meet the challenges presented by the ever changing needs of people with physical and mental disabilities. The awesome power of the triumvirate - State vocational rehabilitation agencies, rehabilitation facilities, and RSA - once dominated rehabilitation service delivery, only to drift in separate ways, but with the potential to reawaken as a potent force in a new era with new goals and objectives, to contribute to achieving equality in employment and community participation for every American with a physical or mental disability. …