Some clients need more capacity, skills, knowledge, or resources to follow through with referrals to other systems. In such cases, the social worker may serve as a case manager, assuming primary responsibility for assessing a client’s needs and arranging and coordinating the delivery of essential goods and services provided by other resources. Case managers also work directly with clients and resource networks to promptly ensure that needed goods and services are provided.
Importantly, in the case manager role, they function more at the interface between the client and the environment than in any other role. Due to recent dramatic increases in the number of people in need of case management services, such as homeless persons, elderly clients, and persons with severe and persistent mental illness, numerous articles have appeared in the literature focusing on patients in need of such services, issues related to case management, and various case manager roles Kingsbury, N. and Scanzoni, J.