The main objective of this study was to investigate the relationships between motivation and readiness levels for physical activity and exercise behaviour among persons with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Participants were 211 U.S. adults with chronic musculoskeletal pain from online support groups as well as specialty and primary care clinics (females = 86.7%; mean age = 43.4 years, SD = 14.4 years). The participants completed an online survey on their engagement in physical activity and exercise behaviour. Multiple one-way analyses of variance with post-hoc comparisons using the Tukey HSD test revealed significant differences between the readiness stages of change groups of preintenders, intenders, and actors in their motivation for physical activity and exercise behaviour. Specifically, the actor group of behavioural change reported higher levels of motivation beliefs for physical activity and exercise behaviour compared to preintenders and intenders. These findings suggest that people with chronic musculoskeletal pain experiencing increased motivation for physical activity and exercise behaviour are more engaged in desired behaviours than the persons with chronic pain reporting varying degrees of behavioural intentions.

The global community is experiencing widespread and rapid changes to labour-force participation with increasing expectations of flexible and highly adaptable skill sets. Workers can expect demands to acquire new, and augment existing, competencies as an integral part of the labour contract. Continuing education, professional development, augmentation of competencies and lifelong learning are the occupational mantras of the millennium. If these are the expectations of those already in the workforce, what then do support professionals expect for their clients, such as rehabilitation counsellors who have considerable skills in facilitating the re-entry of clients to the work-force? This paper examines several questions of continuing skilling and provides a set of recommendations with relevance to contemporary professional practice.

Supervision is a widely recognised component of counsellor training, yet little is known about the clinical supervision training of rehabilitation counsellor educators during their doctoral education. Using syllabi from doctoral rehabilitation counselling programmes, this article discusses the state of clinical supervision in doctoral-level training, and its teaching and clinical implications. 16 of the 25 Ph.D. programmes in rehabilitation responded to contact, and 11 programmes reported offering a course in supervision. Eight of these programmes shared the syllabus for their doctoral-level supervision course(s). The syllabi were analysed to find common themes related to content, learning objectives, assignments and readings. These themes are discussed, and are followed by five recommendations on the manner in which clinical supervision should be provided in rehabilitation doctoral programmes.

In today’s rapidly changing society, counsellors need to have knowledge and skills to work effectively with a diverse consumer population. A review of rehabilitation counsellor education programs in the United States applying for CORE (Council on Rehabilitation Education) re-accreditation between 1991–1994 revealed that two-thirds of the programs had content deficits in multicultural and gender issues. Australia and other countries besides the United States have experienced increases in the number of cultural minorities entering the workforce. The role of women in the modern workforce also has undergone significant change. These issues need to be considered by rehabilitation counsellors in all countries. The importance of infusing these content areas in graduate training is addressed. The authors offer suggestions for infusion of cultural and gender issues into rehabilitation counselling curricula.

In a period of legislative reform, New South Wales' workers compensation stakeholders can learn at least broad lessons by making comparisons with the experience of other countries in post reform review. This article considers the overall impact of the 1993 reforms on the Californian workers' compensation system, with focus on reforms and outcomes in the Vocational Rehabilitation sector. It was found post reform that the number of claims and paid benefits have decreased substantially, and total premiums paid and Vocational Rehabilitation expenditures are down dramatically. However, the changes are blamed for an increase in legal complexity, as return-to work outcomes and post-injury earnings for injured workers appear to have worsened. Additionally benefit levels remain a continuing concern.

Research on horticultural therapy approaches suggest that its positive impact on clients may extend beyond direct rehabilitation or vocational gains to more generally improved well-being. Persons in rehabilitation programs may relate to gardening as a previously enjoyed past time, or as a new activity for either leisure or employment purposes. While gardening is a popular leisure activity in many countries, few studies have looked at what specific gardening activities community-based populations pursue. As part of a larger mail-out survey looking at gardening interests of mid-aged women, a sub-sample of physically disabled women was compared to healthy age-matched women on gardening activities and interests. Physical and psychological functioning and well-being were also sampled. Both groups completed the SF-36 Health Survey for Australia/New Zealand, the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised, and a gardening questionnaire tapping gardening activities and hours per month on these activities, as well as the reasons for pursuing gardening. Group differences emerged on physical and psychological functioning variables, but for virtually all gardening variables, group differences were minimal. Overall findings suggest that for this sample of mid-aged women, the presence of physical disability or limitation did not adversely affect their access to and enjoyment of gardening activities.