ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the existing literature and some new research on the response to injury experienced by siblings, work colleagues, and differing relationships within a community, transient or more enduring. Colleagues at work routinely draw upon different discourses and meanings from relatives and clinicians, and these need to be made explicit in a systemic assessment of the workplace. The vocational service in liaison with a workplace is an observing, influencing system. The experience of the sibling in relation to an injured relative is unique in the family, in that they are the one member who has not consciously chosen to have a relationship with that person pre-injury. A useful approach would be to frame vocational experience post-injury both as a potential for benefiting an organization and a long-term process, requiring frequent liaison with services, and susceptible to changes in personal, practices, and environment.
