We have been thinking a lot about case management lately. For those of you in workforce development, that will not be much of a surprise. But for those of you in education and business, you might be wondering what case management has to do with career development. We’re glad you asked … HA!
Most of the readers of this blog serve multiple customers, clients, or students. That is, there are a lot of people for whom you do things. In some cases, people are formally assigned to you for you to deliver career development services. In other instances, they may simply be “drop by” people who sample the services and never return. In either event, if you think about it, on any given day, there are potentially more people than you have time or resources to serve. That’s where case management comes into the picture.
It would benefit all career development facilitators (CDF) to learn the foundations of case management. It would also benefit most CDF’s to develop some basic case management skills. We will explain our rationale in this blog.
The first thing to understand – and we admit to being very simplistic in our explanation – is what “case management” actually is. The two words really explain it very well.
“CASE” is a group or many. It is the various people you will be serving. In the strictest sense, it is formal. These people are assigned to a “case manager” and the case manager does prescribed tasks with and for them. But in a very loose sense, a CDF always has a case that is made up of the people he or she serves.
“MANAGEMENT” completes the concept. There are many definitions for management, but my favorite is simply … “the wise use of scarce resources.” Implied in this definition is that management is required when resources are not unlimited. If you have more of something than you will ever need, there is not much need to manage that item. But when the demands for an item exceed its capacity, that resource has to be managed so it will achieve its greatest good. Also, this definition implies that decisions are being made and priorities are being established. That is how we achieve “wise use.”
As CDF’s we all should be serving people, and chances are, none of us has unlimited resources (time, money, people, etc.). So case management is a viable skill for CDF’s to learn, regardless of their work environment.
In the next couple of blogs, we will be exploring some facets of case management. Those of you who have been reading this blog over time already know that what you will see and read here is not the “same old, same old.” If you want information on case management basics – like case review, case documentation, and the like – take a short course on the subject. That’s all very good! But we want you to get completely away from “the path most traveled” and begin to explore some ideas for working with your customers, clients, and students that are far from the norm. We want you “out of the box,” as the trite cliché so often says (Aha! That finally explains the crazy picture that Frank picked for this article!).
Buckle up your seat belts. Put on your helmets. Tighten your chin straps. And get ready for what we hope you will agree is going to be an interesting ride that will enrich your knowledge and use of the core elements of career development facilitation as we take an unusual look at case management for CDF’s. Enjoy!
OK- I am hooked. Case Management. “The wise use of scarce resources”. Can’t wait to read more. Too many people, too little time, too few resources to offer. Looking forward to more!
Thanks, Kim. And I will do my best not to disappoint. I have eight really good ideas right now. Some are radically different from contemporary practices in case management. And as you are likely to know, with case loads the size that they are today, something has to give! To me, the place with the greatest potential for meaningful change is the way we do things. So that’s what you have to look forward to … LOL!
By the way, I am thinking about developing this series into a stand alone training later. I really think that it has potential to help a lot of CDF’s, especially those engaged in the workforce development and WIA arenas.
I found it very interesting that you mentioned education and business in the Get On My Case Blog. After reading your break down of the definition, it all hit home. Economically speaking, you could not have made it any plainer. In a sense, we all have cases that we need to manager whether they are clients from the workforce, students, etc. There are many items that we use on a daily basis that we do not manage. Wow, what a wake up call. Supplies are of essence, paper, pens, pencils, staples, student notebooks, erasers, and the list goes on. I can hear it already, “May sure that you use both sides of that paper before getting another sheet”, or “You may only print one time, so make sure that you have edited your paper before pressing that print key”. Thanks, for the wake-up call.
Thanks for the nice comment. Yes, in a very strict sense, all of us in workforce and career development do case management, especially if our jobs have us working directly with customers, clients, or students. And nobody would argue right now that resources are not limited, so management is an essential function of our jobs. Of course, we are always advocates of good, practical, common sense approaches to doing our jobs. We never try to take it to the extremes. But you are right no track, I believe. Thanks again!
Right down my alley..being a WIA youth services case manager is getting ready to go full force ahead. We cannot get enough education/training on managing our time. With the economy today, WIA case managers need to be equipped to handle clients as well as ourself. Thank you for your input!!!