Clinical Studies in Case Management

This volume, a collection of six extended case reports, is an attempt to describe the "marathon" of the case management process as it unfolds over many years. Each of these case reports is followed by a commentary by a distinguished discussant with extensive clinical experience. The purpose of these commentaries is to initiate a dialogue about the following issues: in a field characterized by outreach and informality, what sort of professional boundaries in the case management relationship are required? When should case managers be assertive and when should they play a more passive role, allowing clients to set the pace of involvement? As case management values client self-determination, are coercive interventions ever warranted? If so, when and how should they be used? When should case managers persist in their intervention strategies and when should they change gears and try another approach? This is the 65th issue of the quarterly journal New Directions for Mental Health Services. For more information on the series, please see the Journals and Periodicals page.

JOEL KANTER is a senior case manager on the comprehensive support services unit of the Mount Vernon Center for Community Mental Health, Fairfax County, Virginia.

Casework as friendship: a long-term contact with a paranoid lady / Marjorie L. Sheppard; commentary by Joel Kanter -- Terri: family-centered case management / Joel Kanter; commentary by Kayla F. Bernheim -- Steven: testing the limits of assertive community treatment / David Mays; commentary by Charles R. Goldman -- Overcoming crack, schizophrenia, and homelessness: a comprehensive case management approach / John D. Dende, John D. Kline; commentary by George Hagman -- Sexual abuse, suicidality, and survival: a clinical case management approach / Joseph Walsh; commentary by Maxine Harris -- Passing the baton: four perspectives on a long-term treatment / Barbara Zimmann ... et al.; commentary by Robert W. Surber.