Proactive Case Management: Social Work Active Engagement Revisited

Abstract

Case management is defined as a client-centered, assessment-based interdisciplinary approach to integrating health care and social support services. While the acknowledgment of insuring client-centered care with a focus on 'client knows their needs and wants,' the social worker should not abdicate their role in keeping a client in care or even partial care. Using the Proactive Case Management, the social worker goes beyond the silo of services provided by their agency to re-engage, educate, network, advocate, and broker to facilitate the linkages for the individual. Proactive Case Management requires social workers to understand defense mechanisms, transference and counter transference issues, anticipate issues, to stratify risks to better serve the client. In support of this social worker role, current research demonstrates well-executed case management improves outcomes for clients while reducing costs.