Jerry Carper

March 18, 2008

"Rehabilitation Services began in West Virginia in 1921 as a program to help war veterans return to gainful employment," Jerry Carper told Putnam Rotarians today.

"The program was so successful that the program started picking up additional groups. Now we provide services for any person whose physical -- or mental -- condition may keep them from working.

"For example, if a person is a diabetic, they may not be able to work at shift work. They may need some help either to change jobs, or take some type of training, or to check and see if they could do the same job without shift work.

"Or someone with asthma . . . ." Many disabilities are not readily apparent.

"Rehabilitation Services is not an 'entitlement' program," said Carper. This means that counselors have broad discretion in working with clients and the work is greatly 'individualized' according to specific needs of each person being assisted.

"There is no black or white. We really work in a grey area," said Carper. There may be many different options to follow in each case.

"You can make your own call," which is unusual for a governmental agency.

Income is not considered in order to qualify for services, another factor which further separates rehabilitation from most other assistance programs.

"There are some services we might require a person to pay for, but the core services -- counseling, guidance -- is all free, no matter the circumstances.

"We had a minister who was unable to do his job because he couldn't hear. He couldn't hear the prayer requests. He needed a $6,000 hearing aid. We got it for him. He has decided to make a voluntary contribution to us, an investment in himself.

"Now he can hear the prayer requests. I think his congregation is going to keep him," Carper said to laughter from his listeners.

"We can help people whether they are working at the time, or whether we are helping them find a job, until they have worked successfully for ninety days."

The regional office which Carper supervises serves an eight-county area -- Kanawha, Putnam, Roane, Boone, Jackson, Calhoun, Clay and Mason -- with a staff of fifty. "Twenty-three of these are counselors.

"We hope to assist 400 people to become employed by the end of the year," he said. "Currently we are working with 1,400 individuals.

"The county with the least number of clients is Putnam County," said Carper. "There are a couple of reasons for that.

"We don't have an office in Putnam county; we're at Institute. Second, because we closed our rehabilitation hospital there, word got out that we had closed our doors, that we were no longer providing services. We're trying to overcome both of those problems.

"I want to establish an office in Putnam County because we need to have a presence and we need to educate the community on what we're trying to do.

"The Rehab Center [at Institute] was opened in 1955. It was state-of-the-art at the time, and we were providing physical and occupational therapy which patients couldn't get anywhere else.

"There are only nine rehabilitation centers in the nation. All of them are funded by their states. We in West Virginia were using our federal dollars to fund our center.

"But, in doing that, we were cutting our field programs short. We weren't giving our counselors the money to do the things they needed to do.

"At the Rehab Center, we provided services for about one percent of our [client] population, and about 65 percent of our money was going there.

"But now times have changed. Now you have rehabilitation hospitals everywhere. We couldn't do anything now that they cannot do.

"We had a vocational school [at Institute] so persons with disabilities could go to class. Now you have vocational schools that are adapting to offer training for people with disabilities.

"By staying like we were in 1955, we weren't changing with the times. Fewer people were being served, but we still had a huge work force there, and a lot of money being spent to keep it up."

The change doubled the monies available for field services, Carper told the group. "All the counties now have more funds available to do what they need to do."

A twenty-six-year veteran of the department, Carper has witnessed many other changes. "A college education is equivalent to a high school education twenty years ago. So twenty years ago we helped people go to college some of the time. Now we are helping people go to college all the time.

"Health care has improved, so we are doing less preventive health services than we once did.

"But one thing which has never changed is counseling and guidance.

"We had a person who wanted to be an RN, but all the predictors we had indicated she would be unable to do that type of work.

"We told her we would not help her. (That's the beauty of not being an entitlement program.) She could pursue that vocation if she wanted, and we hoped she would prove us wrong.

"But if you try and you fail, there are other things we might do, and we would be glad to help you in an area where you have a better chance at success."

Carper has twice served as President of Rotary in Spencer, West Virginia.