Co-case Management Policy
Purpose
To create an effective model where all staff at Eva’s Phoenix, work together to transition youth at the shelter from street life to independent living.
Definitions
Co-Case Managers: Primary Worker and Employment Counsellor assigned to youth at intake. In the case of external youth, only the Employment Counsellor will be the case manager. For the purpose of this model, the duties of the case manager and the co-case manager will be identical.
Co-Case Team: The various staff team members providing support and counseling to the youth. Includes Mental Health Counsellor, Intake Worker, Co-Case Managers, Mentorship Coordinator, Job Developer, Life Skills Instructor and Housing Support Worker
Case Conference: Meeting of the Co-Case Team to discuss issues and progress of the youth.
Employment and Housing Team: All members of the Housing, Employment and Mentorship teams.
External youth: Non-resident youth
Internal youth: Youth residents of Eva’s Phoenix.
Action Plans: A living document that takes into account the long and short term goals of the youth and the different steps needed to accomplish those goals. The document changes as the long term goals change or is updated as the different steps are completed on the plan.
Case Manager Functions
1. Goal setting
2. Resource Identification
3. Intervention planning
4. Counselling
5. Linking to services
6. Monitoring
7. Reassessment
8. Outcome evaluation
9. Advocacy
10. Interagency co-ordination
Structure
Once a youth is determined to be eligible for housing at Eva’s Phoenix, they are assigned both a Primary Worker (PW) and an Employment Counsellor (EC). The PW and EC will be the youth’s co-case managers (CM).
External youth will only be assigned to one Case Manager (CM), the Employment Counsellor, since they are not residents of Eva’s Phoenix.
Meetings
Within the first month after intake, the CM will arrange a meeting with the youth to develop an action plan to accomplish their long-term and short term goals. These meetings with the youth will occur every second month.
The following month, and every other month thereafter, the CM will arrange a case conference to discuss the youth’s involvements at the shelter and the progress being made in the various programs he or she is involved in. The CM will invite the other members of the team to attend or provide feedback on interactions with the youth.
Should a member of the Co-Case Team be unavailable for the case conference, a written update should be forwarded to either CM at least one day prior. The update will note any significant interactions with the youth that would influence decisions being made on his/her employment and/or housing needs.
Case conferences can also occur at other times, as needed, to discuss important issues that may arise—for example, unplanned discharges.
Supervisors of Housing and Employment will participate in CM meetings and case conferences as needed.
Employment and Housing Team Meetings may occur every 6 weeks and may include team building activities, training, policy discussions, or other administrative needs to ensure good communication and consistency in decision-making. Management team will co-ordinate these meetings and develop the agenda in consultation with the team.
Action plans
At each meeting of the CM and youth, the Action Plan will be reviewed for progress made towards accomplishing goal. If the youth goals change, the plan must be revised taking into account the new goals and the corresponding actions required to accomplish the goals.
The plans must be realistic, be created in collaboration with the youth and be agreed to by the youth. A copy of the agreed upon Action Plan must be provided to the youth and a copy kept in his file.
Action plans will be kept on the Phoenix server and available to all members of the co-case team. Changes to the plans must only be done by the CM or with the knowledge of the CM.
File Documentation
Success of the co-case model will rely on consistent file documentation. Only one client file will be maintained for each youth. Each member of the co-case team will have access to the file at all times and will be responsible for documenting significant conversations with the youth. “Significant” is defined as any interaction that provides information about the youth’s ability to accomplish their action plan. These may include, but not limited to:
