Case Management & Life Skills
A key component of permanent supportive housing is case management. As the client/resident is housed CASL case managers create an individualized service plan to focus on the resident’s needs. Case managers meet clients at least once a week, this consistent support helps reduce the incidences of acute care services drastically among residents.
Case Management Services:
- Assistance in obtaining benefits
- Aid in obtaining medical, psychiatric, nutrition, and other health related services
- Supports to ensure medication compliance, assistance with meal planning,
- Linkage to community services – including rehabilitation, education, work, and transportation
- Provides socialization opportunities to build community integration
- Encourages family and interpersonal relationships through education and guidance
Many homeless individuals do not have basic life skills like cooking, managing money and developing social relationships due to extended periods of homelessness. Life skills differ from the common supported services offered through supportive case management.
Case Management Services:
- Literacy, numeracy, self-security
- Managing household finances, making and keeping appointments, and correspondence
- Interpersonal skills, refraining from anti-social behavior, dispute resolution, and judiciously choosing positive associations
Additionally, we link clients with providers who teach them how to build the skills necessary to reliably hold and maintain a job. Acquiring a job provides the client with a high level of empowerment and increases the individual’s perception of self-worth and accomplishment.
If the client/resident has a disabling condition the best practice used is a Functional Assessment Rating Scales (FARS) Assessment. The FARS Assessments looks at a client’s adult behavioral health to document the level of cognitive and behavioral functioning. The assessment is completed at intake and every six months afterwards to gauge ongoing housing stability and self-sufficiency.
CASL’s case managers work from a Motivational Interviewing (MI) approach designed to elicit and strengthen the client’s motivation to change and reduce their inclination to revert to an on-the-street survival mindset. Motivational interviewing has been a best practice since 1991. Case managers are equipped with SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery (SOAR) training.