The Practice of Case Management: Effective Strategies for Positive Outcomes - Softcover

Gursansky, Di

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1742370446 ISBN 13: 9781742370446

Verlag: Allen & Unwin, 2012

Inhaltsangabe

Case management is used across a diverse range of organisational settings, from child protection to aged care; disability services; acute and community health; courts and correctional services; employment services; veteran services; education; and immigration programs. However, case management is not always successfully implemented, and practitioners often feel they are not given sufficient support. 'The Practice of Case Management' draws on extensive practice research to identify the key characteristics of successful case management: organisational support; developing delivery models to suit individual client needs; preparation of staff at all levels; and affirmation of the central and active role of the client. The authors outline the challenges and complexities faced by case managers, acknowledging that their role is often poorly conceptualised and articulated. They demonstrate that true engagement enables effective service provision and offer practical strategies for everyone involved in the case management process to facilitate negotiation, accountability and the achievement of positive outcomes.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

DI GURSANSKY is a social work consultant and an honorary fellow at the Australian Catholic University. She has had a long career in social work and human service education, with a particular interest in field education, social work practice, service delivery and gerontology. ROSEMARY KENNEDY is a psychologist and is also admitted as a practitioner of the Supreme Court of SA. She currently works in the area of government regulation of the health professions. Di and Rosemary are two of the co-authors of the first Australian case management text, Case Management: Policy, Practice and Professional Business. PETER CAMILLERI is Professor of Social Work at the Australian Catholic University. He has expertise in areas such as mental health, suicide, child protection and disaster response, and is also the author of books on social work practice and working with men.

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The Practice of Case Management

Effective Strategies for Positive Outcomes

By Di Gursansky, Rosemary Kennedy, Peter Camilleri

Allen & Unwin

Copyright © 2012 Di Gursansky, Rosemary Kennedy and Peter Camilleri
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-74237-044-6

Contents

Figures and tables, 
Authors' note and acknowledgements, 
1 With a focus on practice, what is on the agenda?, 
2 The role of the service system and organisations in case management practice, 
3 Beginning the case management process: Assessment, 
4 Planning, 
5 Implementing case management plans, 
6 Monitoring and review in case management practice, 
7 Transitions in case management practice, 
8 Professional dilemmas in case management practice, 
9 Beyond case management, 
References, 

CHAPTER 1

WITH A FOCUS ON PRACTICE, WHAT IS ON THE AGENDA?

Declaring our position

Why another book on case management? After all, case management has been on the scene for some 40 years, and in the Australian context has been established as a service-delivery approach since the mid-1980s. Few human service organisations or practitioners remain untouched by the influence of case management. This may mean that the organisation has adopted case management as a service-delivery approach; alternatively, if the organisation is a service provider, it will find at least some of its practitioners engaged in case management hosted by other programs or organisations. We often talk about 'doing case management' or 'working with case management' as a reality of the practice world in the human service and health sectors. However, as familiar as many practitioners are with case management, our practice research suggests that confusion still exists about the concept, as well as about what is different in the practice and what is expected of the case manager and those involved in this service-delivery approach.

Much of the significant work on the conceptualisation and documentation of case management practice was entrenched in the international literature by the late 1990s and in the Australian literature during the early 2000s (e.g. see Austin & McClelland 1996; Greene & Vourlekis 1992; Gursansky, Harvey & Kennedy 2003; Holt 2000; Moxley 1989, 1997; Rose 1992; Rothman & Sager 1998; Weil, Karls and Associates 1985). While there continues to be writing about case management, the commentaries often document particular applications of the service-delivery approach, processes, practices or the evaluation of specific aspects of case management-based programs. Most recently, Elizabeth Moore (2009) has edited a book that provides insight into Australian applications of case management in different fields of practice. Texts such as this provide evidence of the many forms of case management that have been developed in response to different settings, client populations, policy and program agendas.

Characteristically, much of the contemporary literature remains descriptive, and assumes the value and virtue of case management. There is a sense that case management is part of the landscape, and that it no longer warrants critical debate in relation to its strengths and limitations as a service-delivery approach or practice modality.

Have we, as human service professionals, succumbed or been seduced by the mantra and rhetoric of case management? Or is there evidence that case management continues to promise outcomes that are consistent with the mandates given to human service and health organisations? Has case management provided effective and individualised service-delivery responses that promote individual change, positive service development and collaborative practices? While some believe the jury is still out on the cumulative impact of case management, there remains a significant level of scepticism about the value of case management and its place in professional practice. However, there is an undeniable logic to the systematic practice arrangements that distinguish this approach from traditional casework or individual work across the professional spectrum. Has this rhetoric been accepted and accommodated? Has familiarity with the notion of case management eliminated the drive to challenge its place in service delivery and the practice world? Has its widespread adoption diminished the need to evaluate case management and refine the practice?

As is often the case, the adoption of extreme positions can distort the issues inherent in any argument about service delivery in health and human services. In the practice world, it is becoming increasingly evident that organisations and practitioners confront complexity in the presenting situations of their clients or consumers. There are few soft edges in practice for human service and health professionals. This reality is mirrored in the job advertisements in these sectors that declare the importance of skilled, knowledgeable, adaptable employees with high-level communication and negotiation skills. The expectation of employers is explicit. They are looking for professional staff with knowledge, skill and capacity to work at the complex end of practice. For many professionals, their work will incorporate the management of support workers who represent a major proportion of the employment growth in these sectors. Inevitably, complexity requires the involvement and contribution of multiple service providers. These demands have been heightened with a service system that has moved from institutional care to community-based service support for increasingly high numbers of vulnerable individuals and client populations. Additionally, in this environment there is an increasing demand for the 'coordination of services'. The human services and health marketplace has diversified. The change in the role for government services and the commensurate growth of service provision through the non-government sector have generated new forms of contractual relationships around service provision. We are seeing a proliferation of contracted providers who are used to support case management for complex situations. Increasingly, these providers are in agencies funded by government but located in non-government organisations (NGOs) (both not-for-profit and for-profit organisations).

We hold the position that the conceptual foundations of case management, both as a service-delivery approach and as a practice, are well established. In taking this position, we recognise that case management cannot be viewed as homogenous, either in its development as a service-provision approach or as practice. Models of case management vary, there are multiple applications in diverse service contexts and it is practised by many different players. What remains contentious, however, is the value of the case management approach — whether case management in its various manifestations does achieve all that its adherents claim it can, or whether it is as problematic as its opponents suggest. For some, case management represents a genuine alternative to the traditional casework practices of professions. Those holding this view emphasise the value of case management principles that are client focused, promote collaborative practices and seamless service delivery, generate planned intervention and use a mix of service providers to achieve declared goals. For others, case management remains suspect, viewed as an imposed approach that reflects the dominance of neoliberal and managerial principles that deskill the practitioner, and that routinise and undercut the integrity of professional practice. These opponents...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Allen & Unwin
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2012
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1742370446
• ISBN 13: 9781742370446
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 240
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: preigu; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; 49078; Deutschland