Multidisciplinary Perspectives in Vocational Assessment of Impaired Workers.

This book is one of a two-volume set. The other volume is entitled Medical Perspectives in Assessing Impaired Workers. The book gives attention to the vocational portions of the multidisciplinary teams in placing people with disabilities into the work force. The content covers considerably more than vocational assessment, as indicated by the title. The text itself is clear and concise, with contributors discussing the positive aspects of the vocational abilities of workers with impairments.

The multidisciplinary team includes evaluators of cognitive function, vocational capacity, disability management services, and engineering matters. Scheer and other contributors make strong points, suggesting that disease or impairment does not necessarily predict the ability of work. The rest of the text offers perspectives that would enable employers, vocational placement specialists, and other medical practitioners to develop an informed viewpoint on the evaluation and placement of workers with disabilities or injuries.

One chapter is contributed by a physical therapist. It adds an overview of different equipment and philosophies in the functional capacity evaluation process. This chapter provides a look at types of testing that a physical therapist might offer, but does not go into great detail. There are also specialized chapters addressing the needs of those with learning disabilities, visual impairments, and hearing impairments.

As this book conveys an enlightened attitude and a good background on looking beyond physical impairment, it would be most applicable for the physical therapy practitioner who is highly involved in vocational management or the disability process. This text is mainly intended for those physical therapists specializing in this multidisciplinary form of vocational and occupational medicine.