Integrating case management and psychiatric hospitalization.

Although case management programs attempt to reduce the use of psychiatric hospitalization for clients with long-term mental illness, inpatient treatment still is required for many individuals in even the best community support systems. Even when formal mechanisms for hospital-community liaison exist, there often is little effective collaboration between hospital and community treatment staffs. Depleted from struggling with relapsing patients, case managers often discontinue their efforts during hospitalization.

Clinical case management: definition, principles, components.

The burgeoning field of case management for long-term psychiatric patients has been handicapped by a lack of conceptual models that delineate the diverse activities of case managers. Based on the actual practice of case management, the author outlines a model of clinical case management that moves beyond the view of the case manager as a systems coordinator, service broker, or supportive companion. Using a contemporary biopsychosocial model of mental illness, the clinical case management model integrates the clinical acumen, personal involvement, and environmental interventions needed to address the overall maintenance of the patient's physical and social environment.