Role of a Case Manager
Case managers play a very important role in today’s society. Case managers work with many different populations and many different ages for many different reasons. Case managers help with direct personal support, crisis intervention, and short-term treatment intervention and help clients work through their problems to become a better person. Direct personal support is very important. Developing a personal relationship with the client is very important. The client must be able to trust the case manager in order to open up and to work towards positive improvements. The client must feel that the case manager truly does care for the client, and the case manager must make the client comfortable. There are some barriers to the development of the relationship, such as different views or beliefs, trust issues, or bad experiences with previous helping professions. The client may also not be a good truth teller, and if the case manager goes at that wrong, it could upset the client. The client may have had a bad experience with someone in the past, which directly puts more pressure on the case manager. If the case manager and the client have different views or opinions on things, the client may feel that the case manager may be doing things based on their own belief rather than the clients, or that the case manager is being biased due to their views or beliefs. This could hinder the development of the relationship. Crisis intervention is important with a client. Assessing the client immediately is the first step. Knowing how serious the potential crisis can be is a key element in knowing how to proceed. Depending on the crisis at hand, there are many different ways to work a client through the crisis. If there are behaviors to watch for, such as self-abusive behavior, or striking out towards others, then more physical action needs to be taken, whereas if it becomes a verbal yelling, then more verbal action is needed. The case manager needs to know what the client is