Welcome, this collection of resources help persons with SCI and their clinical teams support employment after spinal cord injury. Here you will find evidence-based resources for how to help patients return to work after a spinal cord injury, education and training on work and SCI, and real-life stories about the journey to employment after injury.

Work is a means of restoring purpose, social connections, health and independence for persons with SCI. Finding your way back to work is possible with the right support. Individual Placement and Support (IPS) (also called Supported Employment) provides the most effective method for helping individuals with SCI return to work. The resources in this section provide stories that show how you can return to work.

My Employment Story:

Hear personal employment stories from Veterans with spinal cord injury

Your team. Your mission. Complete Support. Supported Employment offers coordinated support to begin and maintain work.

Work is an on-ramp to freedom, connectivity, and happiness.

Returning to work is possible with the right supports.

Your employment journey continues after a spinal cord injury by adjusting, adapting and overcoming with the help of Supported Employment.

Learn more about how to return to work after spinal cord injury from the resources below:

Where it all started: The SCI-VIP study was the first study ever done of vocational rehabilitation in SCI. Hear from SCI patient Shawn O’Neil and his healthcare providers about participating in the first randomized clinical trial of supported employment. Click to watch the video about Shawn’s story.

A two-page introduction to understand Individual Placement and Support services. This information page explains how IPS helps individuals with spinal cord injury find and keep the jobs they want.

For Rehabilitation Professionals

Individual Placement and Support (IPS) Supported Employment is an evidence-based practice to restore work, health, and well-being among persons with SCI. Whether you are a physician, therapist, social worker, psychologist, vocational counselor, or any clinical provider, there is support to help your patient with employment. Here you will find tools and resources developed with rigorous research methods to help SCI healthcare teams and vocational professionals learn about and apply IPS Supported Employment practices to improve the lives of persons with SCI.

Veterans’ Voices:

How healthcare providers make real-world impacts in health, well-being, and financial independence

Provider Resources:

The Individual Placement and Support in SCI toolkit provides practical, real-world, evidence-based information on the best practices for addressing the vocational needs of person with SCI.

Click above to watch a 7-part video series about SCI Interdisciplinary Teams using IPS. The series features a Veteran with SCI, his interdisciplinary Treatment team, and employer coordinating work goals and supports.

Featured Podcasts:

Lisa Ottomanelli, PhD, delivered the 2023 NIDILRR Invited Lecture for Center for Rehabilitation Outcomes Research’s Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) on Employment for Persons with Physical Disabilities on Sept. 11th. Her presentation was on employment for veterans with spinal cord injury (SCI) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) and included findings from her own research to identify evidence-based approaches to increasing employment for veterans with SCI and TBI.

Lisa Ottomanelli, PhD, was a featured speaker at the 2023 Kessler Foundation Baird Visiting Educational Professorship. In this podcast, she discussed the effectiveness of standardized evidence-based approaches that combine vocational rehabilitation with clinical care, highlighting their potential to enhance quality of life and foster competitive employment.

Dr. Lisa Ottomanelli and the team that works with her on multiple research projects presented posters and engaged in Veteran panels at the 2026 Research week.

The event is held annually at James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital as an opportunity to highlight the innovative research involving and impacting Veterans. See some highlights below.

April Ingram, presented her poster titled, “From Injury to Opportunity: Video Narratives Driving Change,” which highlighted the videos included in this webpage.

Hari Venkatachalam showcased innovative research in his poster, “Changes in quality of life, hope, and employment barriers among Veterans engaged in a novel vocational rehabilitation treatment,” and presented a dynamic three-minute presentation, highlighting key insights from Dr. Ottomanelli’s lab.

Dr. Bernice McCoy presented her poster titled, “Their Own Words: Veterans’ Experiences Receiving Vocational Services in SCI Rehabilitation.”

Dr. Bernice McCoy was awarded an Outstanding Poster Award for the Health Science category (accepted on her behalf by Dr. Ottomanelli). The award was presented by (left to right) Drs. Jake Lindheimer (Deputy Chief of Staff, Research Service), Risa Nakase-Richardson (Associate Chief of Staff, Research Service), and Laura Blair (Awards Committee Chair, Research Service).

Mr. Troy Webb, a Veteran collaborator, and Dr. Lisa Ottomanelli participated in a panel titled “Beyond the Numbers: Veteran Stories of the Real-World Impact of VA Research” Webb shared his experience participating in vocational rehabilitation studies, which helped him attain his current role at James A. Haley as the Administrative Officer of the Police Service.

Dr. Ottomanelli is a Clinical Psychologist at the James A Haley Veterans’ Hospital and Associate Professor at the University of South Florida, Department of Neurology, Morsani College of Medicine. Her work and research areas cover spinal cord injury, vocational rehabilitation, and Veterans with Spinal Cord Injury.

For more information on Dr. Ottomanelli, please visit her profile page. If you are a researcher, clinician or innovator of vocational interventions and would like to collaborate with Dr. Ottomanelli, please get in contact in the following ways:

• Email: Lisa.Ottomanelli@va.gov or
• Mail: Bldg. 2, Rm. 19-02, Mail Code 151, 13000 Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, Tampa, Florida 33612.
• Telephone: (813) 503-8883

The content included in this webpage was created by Dr. Lisa Ottomanelli in partnership with individuals with SCI, researchers, and rehabilitation professionals. This collection of evidence-based resources are intended to help persons with SCI and their clinical teams to support employment after spinal cord injury.

Acknowledgments

Content on this webpage was developed through grant funding awarded to Dr. Ottomanelli at the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital and the Tampa Research and Education Foundation from the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Craig H. Nelson Foundation. The content does not represent the views of the VA or the United States Government.