Evidence 2: Preferred Community Enrollment

One of my journal reflections recounted the experience I had with one of the services that

my internship placement provides to clients that completed the initial case management period.

The service is titled preferred communities and it is designed for clients that case managers

consider to be at higher risk for needing further case management services. One of the clients

identified was a client I worked with previously and his case manager asked that I assisted with

his preferred community enrollment. The nature of the enrollment is guided by a form that

assesses the severity of the case and what interventions are needed for future case management

upon his enrollment in the program. Some of the questions are to be determined by the worker

assessing the client as well as by the client in regard to identifying and determining goals to be

completed in his new case management period.

The client that I conducted the enrollment on was an elderly father of seven. His case

manager assessed him as a high needs client for further case management and assigned me with

the task of introducing to him the Preferred Community service. This assessment by the case

manager is informed by competency’s seven second learning behavior, to apply knowledge of

human behavior and the social environment, person-in-environment, and other

multidisciplinary theoretical frameworks. Considering the client was a single father and an

elder his experience in his environment may be more difficult for other populations. Therefore I

informed the client of what the Preferred Community program constituted as and how it may

benefit him. Upon gaining his permission we began the process of enrolling him in the program.

We first began by identifying his goals to be completed within his new period of case

management. The client informed me that he wanted to find new and safe housing. He reported

that his house was attacked by people throwing rocks and breaking his windows. Therefore we
devised action steps to be taken within his case management to complete this goal as a means of

completing competency seven’s third learning behavior, to develop mutually agreed-on

intervention goals and objectives based on the critical assessment of strengths, needs, and

challenges within clients. Some of the action steps to this plan was the secondary goal of

obtaining a job. We then devised a plan with time restrictions to complete this goal, such as

developing a resume in the next three weeks, as well as practicing interviewing strategies within

the next month.

The nature of this case management is almost like a guide for the client because he has

had difficulty with adapting to his new environment. This doesn’t mean he doesn’t have skill and

some self-sufficiency but instead means that he needs interventions that serve as a guidance for

him. As the final learning behavior of competency seven suggests to select appropriate

intervention strategies based on the assessment, research knowledge, and values and

preferences of clients the nature of this intervention felt well fit for the client. This is because it

is informed by social work frameworks that take into consideration his position within his social

environment as well as acknowledges his goals to inform the interventions sought during his new

period of case management. These are examples of what considerations have to been assessed to

determine intervention, and happen differently with every client dependent on that client’s case.