Trust goes both ways – part 1
Trust everybody - but cut the cards. - Finley Peter Dunne
We all know how important it is to gain the trust of the people we OTs serve, as a key element to establishing rapport. How many of us consider how our own level of trust of our clients affects the structure of our plans and our decision-making processes, however?
Although the type of trust we invest in our clients can be different from the type we’re hoping we earn from them, we need to be aware of how we might not trust any given client, and how that distancing might come across. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, however, for a client to know you don’t entirely trust him or her. Sometimes, it’s the very wariness on our part that can establish a rapport as a result of (perhaps grudging) respect.
My friend R. told me he referred an injured worker, Mr. S., to me. My friend knew Mr. S. only slightly – through Mr. S.’s girlfriend, with whom my friend worked. However, R. warned me that Mr. S. “is a piece of work” and that I might not appreciate the referral once I met him. R. also said that when he gave Mr. S.'s girlfriend my phone number, he alerted her that I’m “no pushover.” After this introduction, I was ambivalent about getting a call from Mr. S. to provide disability case management services. When he did phone me, I told him that state work. comp. rules required me to get the payer’s agreement for me to get involved, but made a tentative appointment for our first meeting.
The authorization conversation with the payer was unlike any I’d had before. The first words out of her mouth when I introduced myself were, “Well, the law requires him to have [a DCM], so be my guest to take this one – if you dare. Mr. S. has fired 3 attorneys; dumped his first disability case manager (DCM); and stalked his most recent one. She was so terrified of him, she withdrew from the case. And, by the way, he has a penitentiary record.” I’m thinking now that Mr. S. was probably licking his chops from the challenge R. threw in his face by describing me as having a tough streak. Nevertheless, I didn’t back away from the case. I had over 10 years’ experience working in various mental health settings before going to OT school, and I consider DCM to be a variation of mental health OT practice. So to me, Mr. S. presented more of a return to my pre-OT roots than most of my work comp. cases, and I felt up to the challenge.
….to be continued