Type of Project: Funded project Study
Accompanying the implementation of the Federal Partial Participation Act within the framework of specialist rehabilitation consulting (BTHG-RB)

In December 2016, the “Act to Strengthen the Participation and Self-Determination of People with Disabilities” (Ger.: Bundesteilhabegesetz, BTHG) was passed. It includes a series of legal changes that are intended to help enable people with disabilities to participate as equally, comprehensively and effectively as possible in terms of a self-determined lifestyle. The legal changes also affect the duty of rehabilitation providers to provide advice. Networked contact points are to offer barrier-free information opportunities for rehabilitation and participation. The rehabilitation needs of insured persons are to be determined comprehensively and not just within the focus of their own responsibilities. If support needs are the responsibility of more than one provider, the various service providers must cooperate with each other and provide services “as if from a single source”. The range of counseling services for people with disabilities should be improved by providing additional independent counseling services and using peer counseling approaches. These legal requirements have consequences for specialist rehabilitation counseling, for example through cooperation with other counseling services and the possible referral to additional services in addition to specialist rehabilitation counseling.
People with disabilities should also be able to actively shape the advisory process. The range of services and thus also the range of advice will therefore become larger and more diverse, and the objectives of advice could change in view of the increased self-determination and freedom of choice of the insured persons. More time and personnel resources will be required for advice and advice methods could be modified if necessary in order to support the strengthening of the insured person's position in the advice process.
The cooperation partners, The German Insurance Cooperation Nord (Ger.: Deutsche Rentenversicherung Nord (DRV Nord)) and Knappschaft-Bahn-See (KBS), are currently developing approaches to implement the legal requirements of the BTGH or have made varying degrees of progress.
The aim is to support the DRV Nord and the KBS in the organizational implementation of the BTHG and to examine the extent to which the implementation of the content in everyday counselling is successful. The project accompanies the development and implementation of a BTHG-oriented counseling concept for the rehabilitation counseling of the participating cooperation partners. The evaluation is intended to examine the extent to which the goals pursued by the legislator can be achieved and how the developed counseling concept can be integrated into the existing structures.
A total of three project steps are planned: an in-depth analysis of the initial situation and social law requirements (1), the development of a counseling concept and its subsequent accompanied implementation in the rehabilitation counseling service (2) and a final evaluation of the implementation (3).
The first step of the project - in the sense of a needs analysis - is to take stock of the current counseling landscape. A questionnaire survey at two points in time (T1: before the consultation, T2: 6 months later) collects information on, for example, health, ability to work and restrictions on participation as well as the perception of the consultation. Qualitative, guideline-based interviews with rehabilitation counselors, insured persons and other experts will be used to describe the content, components and framework conditions of the counseling. In addition, consultation protocols of the cooperation partners will be evaluated with regard to ideas/expectations of the consultation process, concrete consultation content and results of the consultation. In addition to the regular documentation, the rehabilitation consultants document the course of the counseling sessions. For this purpose, they record, for example, the time and duration of the contact, the content of the counseling sessions, the involvement of external stakeholders and recommendations for action. A systematic review is to summarize evidence on effective counselling for people with restrictions on occupational participation.
In the second stage of the project, a Delphi process will be used to develop an advisory concept on how advice can be provided in line with the BTHG. The guidance concept will then be implemented and applied in practice.
In the third project step, a second cohort of insured persons will be surveyed by means of a questionnaire to evaluate the implementation of the modified advisory concept. The same instruments will be used as in the survey during the first project step. In addition, interviews will be conducted with rehabilitation counselors, insured persons and experts in order to evaluate the counseling concept. Counseling protocols and documentation are evaluated again and differences to the first project step are worked out.

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