Advocacy in the Time of COVID-19: A "Shot Across the Bow" for Rehabilitation Counseling

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a cascade of challenges, including losses to health and well-being, finances, and security. These conditions have disproportionately affected marginalized communities-people of color, those living in poverty, and people with disabilities. Rehabilitation counselors are well poised to serve diverse individuals with disabilities if they capitalize on their knowledge and skills of holism, collaboration, advocacy, and cultural competence. To do this, the rehabilitation counseling profession should become willing collaborators and consultants with the health care and public health fields. This can be accomplished more effectively by assuming two lenses in addressing barriers for people with disabilities social determinants of health and intersectionality. Advocacy at the client, professional, and sociopolitical levels can bridge disciplines and create both a responsive immediate and long-term solution to the health promotion and quality of life for people with disabilities. Suggestions for actionable advocacy interventions are provided.