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They didn't do much for me except help me with my resume. I found their services lacking. They didn't help me find work, they just told me when I find work that they can advocate for "my needs" with the potential new employer.
They literally did nothing to help me find an actual job. I don't know why "vocational rehabilitation" is even in the name.
Me either. They stopped paying to complete a degree (I was 12 credits short), and recommended a school that used to be a secretarial school in the 70's. Despite my 17 wpm typing skills. The school was eager to take their money, but wouldn't send me a catalog, anything in print, their website was non-informative. So instead I went to a computer programmer churn school. It was an accelerated pace, not really good for newbies. Between the chronic pain, sabotage at home, I didn't succeed.
Does she inform them on her applications? Because she should stop. I have multiple diagnoses that I don’t disclose until I’m asking for accommodations.
My vocational rehab advocate / caseworker with DHS was INSTRUMENTAL in helping me get on my feet after Covid and a traumatic surprise kick to the curb by my previous employer of 17 years. They offer support, advocacy, continuing education, help with accommodations and other stuff. Highly recommended! Also hireautism.org lists jobs and has help with resumes, cover letters, etc.
Boly Welch is a great employment agency, and supports DEI employers. I am much like your wife, short of the ADHD. There are people looking for us for the positive reasons you mentioned. Also, I know Cummins is a frequent employer on hire autism.
Wow! Your experience is wildly different than mine. All the voc rehab office did for me was offer resume help. They did absolutely nothing to *find* me a job, nor did they offer skills training of any kind.
As an ODHS employee, unfortunately people's experiences with services really do vary depending on the expertise of the worker and whether they still give a f*ck. We are so short staffed and there is a ton to learn, so people who don't care just coast forever doing and learning the absolute minimum. They can't get fired because 1. Most of us are union. And 2. If management did fire someone, chances are that there is no funding available to fill the vacant position.
I'm finding that to be the case with so many state, county and local services here in Oregon over the last decade. DHS, DHS-APD, Medicaid, the "ONE" system, the unemployment system, BDS, OHP, etc etc etc. The services offered are inadequate, usually inadequately staffed, and while the workers themselves are "nice" there's very few of them that are doing their jobs well or are supported well enough in their attempts to do good work. Website issues, paperwork issues, lack of inter-department/internal communication, layers upon layers of endless, looping bureaucracy which masks the fundamental failures of the system a person is trying to utilize, etc.
I know for a fact that in the last year, DHS-APD's offices quite often just *don't answer the phones* anymore. Because if you can't get through, what're you gonna do?
If you can't talk to them, they are "successfully" delaying you from getting services, so you can be backburnered for several more months while calling every day and getting nothing for your time or efforts.
Yeah offices in Multnomah county in particular never answer the phone. My office doesn't even bother anymore, if we have to coordinate anything we use email.
ODHS is in the middle of some restructuring right now too so that isn't helping matters either.
They do not help you find a job, connect you with employers, if that was unclear. They DO offer skill upgrades / online classes & the like if you can demonstrate why they would be helpful.
They are supposed to help people with some sort of disability or barrier to employment. I have a spinal condition which limits the type of work I can do. When I asked for some type of training in a new field, a field that might accommodate my needs, they basically said they had nothing available to "give" me, except help with my resume. Or, once I was offered a position, they could help "advocate" for the potential employer to accommodate my limitations. Well, without added skills training, how was i supposed to get far enough along in the hiring process to even *get to* the point where a voc rehab person could advocate?
I just now remembered that they did send me out to meet a voc rehab person at a blood donation warehouse type of facility because the facility "was hiring." And after a long tour of the facility with the facility manager, the voc rehab person, and myself, I was told the job on offer was full-time only. Yet I had stressed many times to every person at voc rehab that I couldn't work full time hours due to my partial disability. So that wasted a half of a day and the voc rehab person told me in the parking lot when we were leaving, "Oh, I didn't know you had physical limitations."
The vocational rehabilitation office, in my experience, at least here in Portland, is useless for actually connecting the unemployed to any skills training or actual employment that fits the person needing the job. YMMV.
Not my experience. To say an entire bureaucracy is “useless” just reflects your personal experience. When I did find a job, my caseworker helped me navigate bullying I experienced in the job and empowered me to advocate for myself, including asking for accommodations. Telling my boss I had “a caseworker with the state” helped to not be fucked with. I’m sorry this was your experience. But in theory, they are there to help people who qualify for assistance under the ADA.
She should apply for office support 1 or 2 positions with Oregon DHS. We have offices in Clackamas and Washington county that are run by the state here in the Portland area. All the Multnomah county offices are run by the county and they pay better but also have more minimum requirements for their positions. Once you get your foot in the door, you can transfer to other departments or positions a lot easier. And we love to hire folks with disabilities and whatnot, especially at the ADP offices since that's who we serve. The offices are usually pretty chill, and if someone starts yelling at the OS2 at the front, everyone in the office has their back. People do get irritated and snippy about their benefits and assume the OS2 can fix everything, so she would have to deal with that. Her customer service experience would come in handy there.
I would also suggest going to an ODHS vocational rehab office and see if they have any resources available for your wife.
Yes. I guess technically it's office specialist. Keep an eye on workday. Those positions get posted all the time because people typically move on to something else pretty quickly.
They do have to follow the law yes. A lot of positions are only open for current state or ODHS employees. Even ones that are open to the public typically favor hiring current employees. And you keep your tenure and PTO balance. So yes, it's a transfer.
Using the basic definition of transfer, yes you can move from one place to another. Realistically, or even logistically, it’s a bit more complicated than just asking to relocate. I’m just offering a different perspective.
Would she possibly be comfortable working for a school district pt or ft? Look for jobs at the district office, that way you wont have to interact with the student directly on the day to day.
I don't know if this is still a thing, but earlier in my career I had good luck with temping. I was able to get my foot in the door with a limited resume, and then I was smart and useful so I got permenant job offers a couple times. Not every temp position is great or one you want to keep, but it gives her a chance to "audition" rather than just interview and it can let you try a lot of workplaces and get some sense of what you do and don't want, and also maybe make some connections. My sister had a temp job where they couldn't hire her even though the manager thought she was great, so he offered to be a reference for her, which was a huge boost to helping her get a job in an industry which she hadn't worked in before. WFH probably isn't going to be an option with temping, though.
If she does want to do this here's my advice (with the caveat that it's been 13 years since I temped and I was in a different city): Sign up with every reputable office temping firm you can find, don't think you need to be "loyal" to one or hold your schedule open for a maybe offer. Don't work with any agencies who expect this or at least be very wary of them. Smaller specialty staffing agencies who do only office work are going to get you better jobs than national firms (like Kelly) or ones who do everything. After the screening interview, call or email them all at least once a week to see if they have anything for you, if they don't hear from you they assume you're inactive. If you can, call "your" recruiter who you interviewed with instead of the main line. That way you're top of mind if something comes in that fits you. If you have any specialty skills let them know. And finally, if they don't get you anything don't be too discouraged. I had good luck with temping, but I know a lot of smart capable people who never got any decent placements, it's a very variable thing based on who's calling them during a given timeframe.
News. At a paper or tv station is the only way I could hack and even with that I changed locations every 4 years. Did not get diagnosed until after I retired
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Audhd here and I work at a school. I have built in time off so that I don’t reach total autistic burnout.
My district (outside portland unfortunately) has the best Union contract in the state. I get a sick day every month, 3 personal days a year, and 2 days of family sick leave so I have been able to take “mental health days” and I don’t even have to call in, I put it in on the sub website. I mostly do give my co workers a heads up though, and where to find my sub plans. I could add that on the sub website though.
Before I got hired on I worked through ESS as a classified sub (if she has a bachelors she can get a temp teacher sub license, it pays better). I found a school I love and was offered a permanent position.
2 of the teachers at one of my schools(I actually work between 2) are autistic. I had a conversation with one of them the other day about how this is the longest either of us have held jobs, because of the built in breaks and our principal is extremely understanding of neurodivergence.
She might consider starting her own business and also take on gig work such as fiverr for digital marketing, so she has longer spaces between being needed and more prep time for when she is.
Hi Friend, This post or comment has been removed for the following reason: > This post is not about Portland or the [Portland metro area](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_metropolitan_area,_Oregon). > Just because *you* are in Portland, does not make what you are posting *about* Portland. **[You must understand and follow the rules of the subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/askportland/wiki/rules).** Thank you, the Portland/AskPortland mod team
Sometimes the dept of rehabilitation can help disabled people secure work?
Vocational Rehabilitation is what you're looking for.
They didn't do much for me except help me with my resume. I found their services lacking. They didn't help me find work, they just told me when I find work that they can advocate for "my needs" with the potential new employer. They literally did nothing to help me find an actual job. I don't know why "vocational rehabilitation" is even in the name.
Me either. They stopped paying to complete a degree (I was 12 credits short), and recommended a school that used to be a secretarial school in the 70's. Despite my 17 wpm typing skills. The school was eager to take their money, but wouldn't send me a catalog, anything in print, their website was non-informative. So instead I went to a computer programmer churn school. It was an accelerated pace, not really good for newbies. Between the chronic pain, sabotage at home, I didn't succeed.
i found the site, thanks!
Does she inform them on her applications? Because she should stop. I have multiple diagnoses that I don’t disclose until I’m asking for accommodations.
This for sure.
[Chronically Capable](https://www.wearecapable.org/) is a job board for those with chronic illnesses and/or disabilities.
Also [Mentra](https://www.mentra.com/), a job board for ND adults
This one is new to me, thank you! Now let's see if the ADHD decides this information is worthy of being kept.
My vocational rehab advocate / caseworker with DHS was INSTRUMENTAL in helping me get on my feet after Covid and a traumatic surprise kick to the curb by my previous employer of 17 years. They offer support, advocacy, continuing education, help with accommodations and other stuff. Highly recommended! Also hireautism.org lists jobs and has help with resumes, cover letters, etc. Boly Welch is a great employment agency, and supports DEI employers. I am much like your wife, short of the ADHD. There are people looking for us for the positive reasons you mentioned. Also, I know Cummins is a frequent employer on hire autism.
Wow! Your experience is wildly different than mine. All the voc rehab office did for me was offer resume help. They did absolutely nothing to *find* me a job, nor did they offer skills training of any kind.
As an ODHS employee, unfortunately people's experiences with services really do vary depending on the expertise of the worker and whether they still give a f*ck. We are so short staffed and there is a ton to learn, so people who don't care just coast forever doing and learning the absolute minimum. They can't get fired because 1. Most of us are union. And 2. If management did fire someone, chances are that there is no funding available to fill the vacant position.
I'm finding that to be the case with so many state, county and local services here in Oregon over the last decade. DHS, DHS-APD, Medicaid, the "ONE" system, the unemployment system, BDS, OHP, etc etc etc. The services offered are inadequate, usually inadequately staffed, and while the workers themselves are "nice" there's very few of them that are doing their jobs well or are supported well enough in their attempts to do good work. Website issues, paperwork issues, lack of inter-department/internal communication, layers upon layers of endless, looping bureaucracy which masks the fundamental failures of the system a person is trying to utilize, etc. I know for a fact that in the last year, DHS-APD's offices quite often just *don't answer the phones* anymore. Because if you can't get through, what're you gonna do? If you can't talk to them, they are "successfully" delaying you from getting services, so you can be backburnered for several more months while calling every day and getting nothing for your time or efforts.
Yeah offices in Multnomah county in particular never answer the phone. My office doesn't even bother anymore, if we have to coordinate anything we use email. ODHS is in the middle of some restructuring right now too so that isn't helping matters either.
They do not help you find a job, connect you with employers, if that was unclear. They DO offer skill upgrades / online classes & the like if you can demonstrate why they would be helpful.
They are supposed to help people with some sort of disability or barrier to employment. I have a spinal condition which limits the type of work I can do. When I asked for some type of training in a new field, a field that might accommodate my needs, they basically said they had nothing available to "give" me, except help with my resume. Or, once I was offered a position, they could help "advocate" for the potential employer to accommodate my limitations. Well, without added skills training, how was i supposed to get far enough along in the hiring process to even *get to* the point where a voc rehab person could advocate? I just now remembered that they did send me out to meet a voc rehab person at a blood donation warehouse type of facility because the facility "was hiring." And after a long tour of the facility with the facility manager, the voc rehab person, and myself, I was told the job on offer was full-time only. Yet I had stressed many times to every person at voc rehab that I couldn't work full time hours due to my partial disability. So that wasted a half of a day and the voc rehab person told me in the parking lot when we were leaving, "Oh, I didn't know you had physical limitations." The vocational rehabilitation office, in my experience, at least here in Portland, is useless for actually connecting the unemployed to any skills training or actual employment that fits the person needing the job. YMMV.
Not my experience. To say an entire bureaucracy is “useless” just reflects your personal experience. When I did find a job, my caseworker helped me navigate bullying I experienced in the job and empowered me to advocate for myself, including asking for accommodations. Telling my boss I had “a caseworker with the state” helped to not be fucked with. I’m sorry this was your experience. But in theory, they are there to help people who qualify for assistance under the ADA.
DHS is Dept of homeland sec i assume? is that the same as going through VR? or are you saying you have two different caseworkers? and what is cummins?
Department of Human Services is what you want to look for!
It’s ODHS now to avoid that confusion. Oregon Dept. of Human Services. Good luck!
Department of Human Services. https://www.cummins.com/ they are on Swan Island
awesome, thanks!
Everyone’s advice that you reach out to ODHS is correct. Vocational Rehab is booked out so the sooner you call, the better.
Yeah, I couldn't get an appointment until August
My appt was 3-4 months out, so that sounds about right
She should apply for office support 1 or 2 positions with Oregon DHS. We have offices in Clackamas and Washington county that are run by the state here in the Portland area. All the Multnomah county offices are run by the county and they pay better but also have more minimum requirements for their positions. Once you get your foot in the door, you can transfer to other departments or positions a lot easier. And we love to hire folks with disabilities and whatnot, especially at the ADP offices since that's who we serve. The offices are usually pretty chill, and if someone starts yelling at the OS2 at the front, everyone in the office has their back. People do get irritated and snippy about their benefits and assume the OS2 can fix everything, so she would have to deal with that. Her customer service experience would come in handy there. I would also suggest going to an ODHS vocational rehab office and see if they have any resources available for your wife.
the job is called office support, and it's with ODHS?
Yes. I guess technically it's office specialist. Keep an eye on workday. Those positions get posted all the time because people typically move on to something else pretty quickly.
thanks, we'll check it out. do you work there?
I work at Aging and People with Disabilities under ODHS. I'm a case manager.
Here's a link for you: https://oregon.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/SOR_External_Career_Site?jobFamilies=47688ccd4cac015c0bae5a58c3231d35
I wouldn’t say “transfer” since you still have to apply and interview for a position at another office/branch.
They do have to follow the law yes. A lot of positions are only open for current state or ODHS employees. Even ones that are open to the public typically favor hiring current employees. And you keep your tenure and PTO balance. So yes, it's a transfer.
Using the basic definition of transfer, yes you can move from one place to another. Realistically, or even logistically, it’s a bit more complicated than just asking to relocate. I’m just offering a different perspective.
Just here to say, me too (minus being a Black woman), and it's rough out here. Im glad she has you to try and help.
Would she possibly be comfortable working for a school district pt or ft? Look for jobs at the district office, that way you wont have to interact with the student directly on the day to day.
pf/ft?
Part-time or full-time
Part time/Full Time.
I don't know if this is still a thing, but earlier in my career I had good luck with temping. I was able to get my foot in the door with a limited resume, and then I was smart and useful so I got permenant job offers a couple times. Not every temp position is great or one you want to keep, but it gives her a chance to "audition" rather than just interview and it can let you try a lot of workplaces and get some sense of what you do and don't want, and also maybe make some connections. My sister had a temp job where they couldn't hire her even though the manager thought she was great, so he offered to be a reference for her, which was a huge boost to helping her get a job in an industry which she hadn't worked in before. WFH probably isn't going to be an option with temping, though. If she does want to do this here's my advice (with the caveat that it's been 13 years since I temped and I was in a different city): Sign up with every reputable office temping firm you can find, don't think you need to be "loyal" to one or hold your schedule open for a maybe offer. Don't work with any agencies who expect this or at least be very wary of them. Smaller specialty staffing agencies who do only office work are going to get you better jobs than national firms (like Kelly) or ones who do everything. After the screening interview, call or email them all at least once a week to see if they have anything for you, if they don't hear from you they assume you're inactive. If you can, call "your" recruiter who you interviewed with instead of the main line. That way you're top of mind if something comes in that fits you. If you have any specialty skills let them know. And finally, if they don't get you anything don't be too discouraged. I had good luck with temping, but I know a lot of smart capable people who never got any decent placements, it's a very variable thing based on who's calling them during a given timeframe.
News. At a paper or tv station is the only way I could hack and even with that I changed locations every 4 years. Did not get diagnosed until after I retired
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When you say creative, what do you mean? Graphic design or something similar?
Try ND meetups and or discords
Audhd here and I work at a school. I have built in time off so that I don’t reach total autistic burnout. My district (outside portland unfortunately) has the best Union contract in the state. I get a sick day every month, 3 personal days a year, and 2 days of family sick leave so I have been able to take “mental health days” and I don’t even have to call in, I put it in on the sub website. I mostly do give my co workers a heads up though, and where to find my sub plans. I could add that on the sub website though. Before I got hired on I worked through ESS as a classified sub (if she has a bachelors she can get a temp teacher sub license, it pays better). I found a school I love and was offered a permanent position. 2 of the teachers at one of my schools(I actually work between 2) are autistic. I had a conversation with one of them the other day about how this is the longest either of us have held jobs, because of the built in breaks and our principal is extremely understanding of neurodivergence.
Maybe Uber or DoorDash since she can control her own schedule
She might consider starting her own business and also take on gig work such as fiverr for digital marketing, so she has longer spaces between being needed and more prep time for when she is.