With men historically making up the majority of workers compensation claims, including a high proportion over 50, and a high number of females in the vocational rehabilitation workforce in their 20s and 30s, the pairing of a middle aged male worker and a young female rehabilitation officer is common.
 
For the most part, these relationships evolve as any other. But occasionally the issues of age and gender are compounded by generational issues and traditional beliefs around gender roles. The rehabilitation consultant learns through experience how to deal with difficult situations, but a provider new to the field can find the situation difficult and confronting.

Coupled with a lack of experience, confidence and assertiveness from the rehabilitation consultant, the outcome can sometimes be negative.

Return to work matters spoke to two female rehabilitation consultants in their early 30s about their experiences.

At the age of 22, during her first year working as a rehabilitation consultant, Bronwyn* had challenges dealing with a middle aged male truck driver who openly admitted he “didn't like working with females”.

“He actually told me that he didn't like me and that he didn't value my opinion,” Bronwyn said.

“He expressed the opinion ‘how could you possibly know anything at your age, and how would you know what my job is like?”

Despite best efforts at engaging the client, Bronwyn said there was so much resistance she was left with only one course of action.

“I found it really, really difficult at the time,” she said.

“It was getting to the point where I didn't want to deal with him anymore, it was starting to make me feel sick every time I had to see him.

“I had never had an experience like that before, with someone being so nasty to me."

“I tried to get the case moved on, we just weren't making progress, we weren't getting anywhere."

“Eventually I transferred the client to an older female staff member."

“He responded better to her, even though she was female, I think it was probably due to her age and her extra experience.”

In fact, Bronwyn believes the issues of age and experience were the primary factor behind the difficulties she experienced, rather than the fact she is female.

“Now when I look back, I can see it's probably more to do with age,” she said.

“I think gender probably had a little bit to do with it, but I think a lot of it was due to my being young, especially as I have always looked younger than I am.”

But now after 1 years working in the industry her confidence, self-assuredness and assertiveness have grown, and she has not had trouble with clients questioning her authority in the past few years.

“I didn't know how to handle that sort of situation at the time, but now I'm able to handle it a lot better and am a lot more confident dealing with these issues.”

She is also not afraid to let clients know about her level of experience.

“If I ever feel like a worker is concerned about my age or experience, I might drop in a comment like ‘in my 1 years working in the industry' or something like that,” she said.

“I find that makes a little bit of a difference - it's almost like your credibility goes up a little bit more at that point.”

Bronwyn's co-worker Karen*, who was 21 when she commenced in the rehabilitation field nine years ago, also had a negative experience with an older male client.

“This client was a 5 year old man who was particularly aggressive and potentially dangerous,” Karen said.

“When he came to me he had already been through over 10 other rehabilitation consultants – all of who had been female and young.

“Each time, the client had used threats of violence against the rehabilitation consultant in order to force another change in consultant, simply because he did not want to participate.

“It was becoming a specific pattern of referral, threat of violence, rehabilitation consultant requesting closure and the insurance company re-referring him elsewhere.”

Once the worker came to her, Karen knew it was time to break this pattern.

“Initially, I had to utilise my male boss and the client's male solicitor to get the program started,” she said.

“Over time, the worker gradually started to participate and I was able to slowly decrease the involvement of my boss and the solicitor.

“So in the end, what initially seemed like a lost cause, resulted in full participation from the client.”

Karen says she has found that the challenge of working with older male clients does not end with issues of aggression or condescension.

More recently, she has been noticing elements of transference with two male clients, both of whom are in their 60s.

“One client in particular was a very successful business man, who had recently divorced and had no relationship remaining with his daughter, who was around my age,” Karen said.

“He was simultaneously grieving the loss of his relationship, his family and his job.

“He used to mention to me all the time that he liked coming to the rehab appointments as he did not feel judged, and that from them he had regained a different sort of "family" support.

“It was clear he was utilising my appointment times as substitutes for seeing his daughter – this is something I openly talked about with him, and I spent a lot of time clarifying our roles in the program and boundaries, etc.”

While the client was successful in finding new employment, the difficulty arose at the closure of his rehabilitation.

“When it came time to close his file he was completely devastated,” Karen said.

“He began crying and disclosed to me that it was like losing family all over again.

*Names have been changed