Rehabilitation Psychologist - Roles and Career Prospects

Rehabilitation psychologists support people with troubled background to reorganize their lives and lead a positive, healthy and meaningful life. Psychology is a diverse field and involves studying theories and doing extensive research. As the research brings out hidden truth to the fore the information is further added to the body of knowledge and is made use of while dealing with a particular type of patient. A career in rehabilitation includes getting associated with communities and organization, diagnosing and treating people. They also work independently or team up with professionals from varied fields such as, engineers, school personnel, managers, policy makers, lawyers, scientists and physicians. Thus they contribute to every sphere of the society. Many rehabilitation psychologists job responsibilities make them to work in corporate offices, schools and universities, court rooms, laboratories, prisons, hospitals and community health care centers.

There are varied field of specialization one can specialize in. The graduates can join an acute care hospital and treat patients with problems like, depression, anxiety, pain and other health concerns. They may also choose to serve at physical therapy centers, long term rehabilitation centers etc.

The salaries for rehabilitation psychologists range from $45,000 to $100,000 as per individual experience, expertise and knowledge. Rehabilitation psychology as a career has many more opportunities today as compared to past. Greater life expectancy and effects of aging have resulted in incidences of disability, injury, pain and other chronic illness. According to Disabled in Action, New York based advocacy groups nearly 20% of Americans are disabled and more than 10.7 million of them have conditions severe enough to be need of help with their daily chores and day to day living. Situations such as these have led to an increase in the demand for good rehabilitation psychologists. In the meanwhile the field itself is growing fast and has opportunities galore for the ones specialized with doctoral degree in rehabilitation psychology (click here http://www.rehabilitations.org/rehabilitation-psychology.html).