16.1 – Maintain Network of Referral Services

Purpose & Context

Career Development Professionals (CDPs) develop and maintain a network of service providers and agencies that can meet client needs when these go beyond the CDP’s scope of practice.CDPs respect the integrity, and promote the welfare, of their clients. Even when clients’ needs are within the career development practitioner’s boundaries of expertise, there may be situations where the practitioner will refer the clients to others whose approach would benefit the client more.

Effective Performance

Competent career development professionals must be able to:

P1. Create inventory of partners for referrals, for example:
- Service providers, for example:
  - Occupational therapists
  - Physiotherapists
  - Psychologists
  - Psychiatrists
  - Community nurses
  - Social workers
  - Physicians
  - Parole Officers
- Agencies, for example:
  - Rehabilitation Centres
  - Educational centres
  - Mental health centres
P2. Obtain information about referral resources:
- Name of organization/service provider
- Contact information, e.g. website address, phone number
- Operating hours, e.g. days/hours of service
- Types of services offered
- Area served
- Clients served
- Languages served
- Cost of services
- Waiting list
- Referral process, e.g. data quality and use, data security, client confidentiality
P3. Verify partners for referrals meet requirements, including:
- Client confidentiality
- Data security
- Qualifications
- Reporting frequency, as applicable
P4. Develop agreement with service providers, as appropriate
P5. Monitor quality of service delivered to inform future referrals

Knowledge & Understanding

Competent career development professionals must know and understand:

K1. Support services available to clients from community partners and other agencies
K2. Referral system, e.g. inventory network, referral process, assessment and monitoring
K3. Evaluation methods, e.g. indicators to monitor referral system performance

Contextual Variables

Competent career development professionals must be able to perform this competency in the following range of contexts:

The range of services available to clients may vary depending on the CDP’s location and client needs.

Glossary & Key References

Terms

Industry-specific terms contained in the standard defined here, where applicable.

None

Information Sources and Resources for Consideration

None

Context Rating Scales

Criticality

Q: What is the consequence of a professional being unable to perform this skill according to the standard?

Moderate risk: CRITICAL

Frequency

Q: How frequent and under what conditions is this skill performed?

Occasionally, e.g. generally several times in a month

Level of Difficulty

Q: Under routine circumstances, how would you rate the level of difficulty in performing this skill?

Moderate difficulty or complexity

Time Required to Gain Proficiency

Q: What is the average length of time or number of repeated events that are minimally necessary for an individual to become proficient in performing the skill to the standard?

A competent career development professional requires a minimum of one year of experience with referrals for at least 20 different clients, representing a broad range of referral needs.

Autonomy

Practitioners typically perform this competency without supervision, and alone.

Automation

It is somewhat likely that this competency will automate.

Requisite Work Aids, Tools, Equipment or Materials

None