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Research has shown that using telehealth for rehabilitation assessment can be an effective approach. The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns led to many rehabilitation counselors pivoting to telehealth assessment with their clients. This study explores rehabilitation counselors’ use of rehabilitation assessments and telehealth since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a mixed-methods approach, data from 41 rehabilitation counselors across Australia were analyzed. Participants were asked which measures they used prior to the pandemic, how their use of the measures changed during telehealth, and how their work changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Depression Anxiety Stress Scales and the Occupational Search Inventory were the most commonly used tests. Theoretical analysis demonstrated that participants utilized tests based on their usefulness in comprehensive assessment and rehabilitation planning, for engaging the client in the assessment process, out of necessity (mandated tests), and due to attributes of the test the counselor valued. Participants described the impact of COVID-19 on assessment practice demonstrating that despite challenges to telehealth, there were also benefits and that assessment measures could be altered for use in telehealth. Although telehealth had an impact on how rehabilitation counselors provided assessments, many found ways to make it work at a distance.

The unequal effects of COVID-19 and resulting lockdowns on mothers around the world was identified as a concern in the early months of the pandemic. Quickly, women decreased work hours and women researchers reported reductions in research time. Meanwhile, research publications by women dropped precipitously. In order to examine day-to-day activities of academics during June and July 2020 in early parts of the COVID-19 Pandemic, we utilized Ecological Momentary Assessment to ask 130 academics around the world about their current activities at six random times per day over the course of one week. This novel approach to sampling allows researchers to collect self-report activity data in real time, without the bias of retrospective report. Results showed that parents, especially mothers, were less likely to have uninterrupted work time and were 3 times more likely than fathers to multitask, nearly 5 times more likely than fathers to multitask while caring for children, and 4.25 times more likely than fathers to be caring for children when contacted. Academic mothers were the hardest hit by the COVID-19 Pandemic, and unless ameliorated, the impact on their research may have lasting effects on their careers.

Though the importance of the inclusion of multicultural and social justice competencies in rehabilitation counselor education has been attended to for years, we know little about the content, concepts, activities, and assignments included in multicultural counseling courses. This mixed-methods study analyzed 25 multicultural counseling syllabi from CACREP-accredited rehabilitation counseling programs. Results indicated that nearly half of the multicultural counseling syllabi analyzed took an essentialist approach to educate future rehabilitation counselors. Very few syllabi mentioned the immigrant and refugee experience, and no syllabi exploredsize diversity and/or anti-fat bias. Class assignments and activities assigned exercises focused largely on students’ racial and ethnic identities. Additionally, results showed a common theme of ethnographic interviews, cultural site visits, and cultural immersion exercises. A call to action for counselor educators is included.