| The scope of the case manager's general role, and the extent to which therapy is part of that role, has implications both for educational background and for on-the-job training. The lack of consensus about case managers' roles has contributed to disagreements about appropriate training and professional background. Not surprisingly, social work guidelines for social work case management recommend that all case managers have a bachelor's degree or a master's degree in social work (Brennan & Kaplan, 1993). However, that does not seem to be the reality in general. Rothman (1992) found no optimal level of education for case managers. However, he found that relevant training for case managers was beneficial for case managers and for clients. Rothman's guidelines suggested that case management programs should provide an orientation to case management for new employees and should provide ongoing supervision to ensure that the case management intervention is clearly understood.
Some researchers have suggested that defining the appropriate level of training for the components of case management may be important because appropriate training may differ for activities such as outreach versus assessment or counseling. For example, paraprofessionals may be effective in certain outreach, referral, and follow-up activities. Agency staff should train case managers for the roles they will assume in various programs (Graham & Birchmore Timney, 1990). For example, if paraprofessionals from the community are used, they should be aware of service provision and agency issues. HIV researchers have found that paraprofessionals can implement theory-based interventions (for example, Cabral et al., 1996; Leviton & O'Reilly, 1996), which suggests that they should be able to implement certain, but perhaps not all, case management activities.
Go to section 2.1.7 Evaluation
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