Social return is one of the first official supporters of the Institute of Registered Case Managers (IRCM). Here’s a summary of why we think this is such an important development for the case management sector
 
The opening of the register of case managers by the IRCM will, for the first time, mean that the UK has a dedicated register of practicing case managers. The public will be able to;
 

• Check whether a case manager is an IRCM-registered case manager
• Expect adherence to the IRCM code of ethics
• Expect that their work meets or exceeds standards set by the IRCM
• Expect that the case manager is working within their demonstrable scope of practice.

 
Importantly if there is a concern that an IRCM-registered case manager is working below the required level then there will be an independent and fair process through which concerns about any registrant can be raised and investigated, with appropriate actions taken if the required standard is found not to have been upheld.

Social Return is proud to be an official supporter of the IRCM as we believe registration and protection for clients is important. We will be supporting all of our case managers to register with the IRCM and we are delighted to add registration for our case managers to our system of supervision, our learning programme and the skills and experience within our team.

More widely we think that the sector will benefit from the establishment of a case manager specific register as another important component in assuring clarity and engendering confidence in case management when it comes to quality, protection, safety and accountability.

By Rebecca Taylor, Case Manager at Social Return Case Management
 
Case management supports clients to progress toward aspirations and goals for their lives. Integral to this is building a positive relationship with each client, and those close to them.
 My focus as a case manager is on each unique client and what they may need; something I really enjoy about the role. That said, there are common themes within our work. One theme pivotal to meaningful support and progress is the ability to build trust and rapport.

​THE IMPORTANCE OF RAPPORT IN CASE MANAGEMENT
 
A Google definition of the word ‘rapport’ that fits my work is; “A close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned understand each other's feelings or ideas and communicate well.” Rapport is highlighted as a necessary communications skill within the BABICM Competency Framework (www.BABICM.org).
 
Client and family feedback frequently indicates the importance of skilled case management support following life-changing injury. We may be the first professional with such a wide remit and sufficient time to spend with the client to deeply explore the changes since injury in their lives, alongside their aspirations and their needs.
 
A collaborative assessment and planning process at an early stage is usually a good foundation upon which to build rapport. We can only progress toward providing recommendations that are appropriate and meaningful by listening and understanding each person and what motivates and engages them. From this, rapport grows with the opportunity for trust to develop and deepen.
 
There must be room for debate, choice and challenge from our clients. This can be an opportunity for further discussion and reflection, deepening our understanding of their needs and situation, leading to deeper insight and strengthening of rapport.

​TAILORING THE APPROACH TO BUILD RAPPORT AND TRUST
 
It is important to understand the right approach for each client in all stages of the relationship. Clients and family members have often been though a variety of challenging experiences. I find that some clients and families have gone for so long without the support they need, that they are very enthusiastic and quickly welcome any input and ideas from their case manager. For others it can take a number of meetings and some positive action, before a sense of mutual understanding and meaningful rapport begins to build, which promotes trust in a case manager and the case management process.  
 
It is most certainly the case that trust and rapport are not gained simply by being an experienced professional with a great CV full of evidence of knowledge and skill. Case managers must build rapport upon which trust can be earned. As the great American tennis player Arthur Ashe said “Trust has to be earned and should come only after the passage of time”.

For more information Rebecca can be contacted at Rebecca.taylor@social-return.co.uk
Tel: 0191 375 0256

​Jackie Waggott, BABICM advanced case manager and director, Social Return Case Management, writes for NR Times on the challenges of care provision for case managers and clients.

This article considers a range of issues faced by case managers in the provision of care services to clients and highlights the recent British Association of Complex Case Management (BABICM) research which highlights the challenges faced by users of care services, staff, commissioners, providers and coordinators/managers of care. 

​Read the full article here.

​​We need to keep in mind that our role includes evidencing when somebody has progressed to the point at which there is less input needed or where we can start to withdraw. We also need to be aware of progressing to a point where needs have changed and where a change to a different approach may be needed.
 
Goals must be SMART; we need to be smart to communicate them effectively.
 
The smart acronym is a structure for writing goals - Specific, Measurable, Accurate, Realistic, and Timely. Case managers need to tease out these elements in the person's expression of what they want to change and ensure this understanding is shared across the team in order that all interventions are contributing towards meaningful progress and achievements for people.
 
It can be challenging to turn the person's words into a SMART structure and bits of it can get lost. It can often end up being an action plan rather than a goal. It is a skill and an art to be able to articulate what can sometimes be quite a nebulous thing that somebody wants to be able to do into something that you can use as a vehicle to then structure their therapy and input around.
 
Our clients may need support to understand how a focus on a specific area, or that doing things in a particular order or a different way comes from the aspirations they have articulated. This is placed alongside skilled assessment which together with the personal aspirations identify the best path toward achieving their goals. The path may not be smooth. It may require experimentation and trial to establish the most effective way forward. It may not be a direct line from A to B, particularly following complex and catastrophic injury. The client’s aspirations may change over time as progress is made and space is needed for the person and the plan to change and evolve.
 
Inputs, outputs, and outcomes – what is the relationship between them?
 
There is an opportunity in case management to take innovative approaches on an individual basis. We can look at different approaches, clients can access services and methods that may not traditionally be part of rehabilitation and recovery pathways. Social Return case managers support the client and their whole team to try things out and experiment within a framework of clear justified reasoning. There is a wide range of experience within the team of innovative approaches to draw upon. The team is beneficial for clients and as a team member within Social Return - you don't have to have all the answers because you can go to the rest of the team and access that shared knowledge and experience with novel solutions or suggestions.
 
How does this approach help Solicitors, Insurers and Deputies?
 
Solicitors and Deputies can rely on our very client-centric approach. It goes back to each individual unique client. There's nothing more powerful than listening to somebody's own individual story and developing a deep understanding of that person’s experience and aspirations for their recovery and their lifestyle. The context is always the client, and their story informs the approach we take and clarity in the documentation of their progress toward their clearly articulated goals.
 
We are mindful when legal processes are going on in parallel and we don’t lose sight of the need to present a clear picture of the situation, the goals, plans and to demonstrate progress and context. Our job as case managers however is to keep the focus on each individual client.
 
What are the challenges to demonstrate and measure outcomes as opposed to outputs?
 
It is about being very clear and very specific using the SMART goal structure to demonstrate the difference in what has been achieved alongside ensuring context and over time that an accurate picture is painted in the data and information collected. It might be crucial to demonstrate a very small difference, or even that somebody has stayed the same because there are times for specific individuals when not getting worse is a positive outcome. This can feel challenging because you want people to get better but on occasion plateaus can occur, often related to the complexity of the issues that some of our clients have. It is then important to recognise that you managed to keep somebody on an even keel as an outcome. Sometimes that's just as difficult as enabling people to progress.
 
A bit about me
 
I came to Social Return as a result of my longstanding connection and relationship with Vicki Gilman and Jackie Waggott, whom I worked with as an independent occupational therapist for many years. I am now leading the development of the service in the south and the South West of England.
 
I was ready for a new and different challenge that would use the skills that I've achieved and developed over the nearly 30 years as an OT and the knowledge of working with case managers for well over a decade.
 
Throughout the roles and opportunities, I've had, I've always been interested in outcome measures and being able to demonstrate the difference that people can achieve through therapy and having case management and support.
 
My Masters dissertation focussed on outcome measures in community rehab, and I've continued to support the use of SMART goals and outcome measures to share and demonstrate the difference made as people develop and change.
 
If you would like to find out more about demonstrating value, please contact me on the below details. 

​I have always been interested in outcomes and the measurement of change in the people I work with. In fact, I spent quite a few months writing several thousand words on this very subject for my master’s dissertation and the phrase “I love a spreadsheet me” has often been whispered in my presence. Enough said on that subject though.

Looking back on this got me thinking about measuring change – How do we ensure that the people we are working with are fairly represented? How can we make sure that any change is meaningful? How do we demonstrate value and evidence progress?

So, who’s outcome is it?

This is an important question to think about when we consider the significant effort and (all too often) sacrifice that has been made to engage and participate in interventions and activities that are designed to stimulate change. There are “costs” associated with this – emotional, physical, social, psychological, environmental, spiritual, financial etc. etc. We need to remind ourselves of this and not lose sight of the person behind the numbers and graphs – balancing the quantitative snapshot with the qualitative detail of peoples lived experience of change.
​
It’s not difficult to translate what we do with people, as case managers, therapists, doctors, solicitors… into numbers to demonstrate that a change has occurred between two-time frames and there are plenty of tools to enable us to do this – 

​​We get a nice graph, everyone’s happy…or are they? Whilst this allows us to compare progress between individuals, professionals, and services, does it compare progress within the person? Does it really articulate what is important on an individual level?
​
Being able to communicate change in a meaningful way that makes sense to a wide audience is a skill that is refined over time and developed through discussion and active listening. We don’t always get it right and can lose sight of the person behind the statistics if we are too focused on the numbers and providing data. That’s why we need to gather a variety of information that serves multiple purposes.

​James, put his bicycle back together and was able to do an activity he enjoyed with the person he enjoyed spending time with. He told everyone about his new bike and how he was now cycling with his friend (as well as how much better he felt, how much less pain he was in and how much better he slept – if you asked him and his Dad!)
The physio was able to demonstrate improvements in range of movement, strength, and balance by being creative with standardised outcome measures which were woven into fun activities.

The case manager was able to demonstrate how James was achieving one of his aspirations through participating in Physiotherapy, how he was able to access equipment that continued to contribute to improving and maintaining his physical, social, and mental health as well as preserving social contact and engagement in age-appropriate activities. He was doing better at school - he was able to concentrate more and had an activity that he could talk about and do with others of his own age.

Change could be demonstrated in terms of what James can now do compared with before. We were not just enabling him to achieve improved range of movement in his affected right arm and leg joints, we were enabling him to achieve so much more. We were demonstrating the change made through outcomes and outputs.

Why does it matter that we differentiate between outcomes versus outputs?

Outcomes personalise the “what's desired” and makes it meaningful. Putting the “what” into context for that individual and not just counting the action or the activity, it is about the personal, individual difference that it makes. It's about focusing on what that person does in their widest sense and context and celebrating how close they come to be being able to achieve or exceed in this. It's important to make sure that the things that the person wants to achieve are made very clear and change is viewed through the lens of the intervention or input that's provided to that person. “How does doing X, or providing Y enable P to achieve the thing they have said they want to be able to do, or be able to do differently?”
 
An output is more like counting or quantifying a specific action or activity; service or product provided without necessarily looking at the wider purpose it achieves. For example, consistently providing P with 15 hours of support a week at home is an output. Whereas 15 hours of support a week at home enables P to go out to work 3 days a week and improve their mental health so they are no longer needing to take antidepressant medication.
 
Outputs feed into outcomes and outcomes provide context and meaning – the “so what” which leads onto “what next, and next, and next….”  Outputs are the pieces of the puzzle, and the outcome is parts of or the whole puzzle.
 
Demonstrating Value

Value is a personal, individualised concept and will mean different things to different people. That is why it can be quite difficult to quantify where several parties are involved, and they are often seeking different examples to demonstrate that value has been provided.
 
In order to achieve this, we need to understand what the expectations are. Sometimes these will be less achievable or less realistic – that does not mean that attempts should not be made to work towards them as there is nothing better than being proved wrong.  Often it is about compromise in such situations and aiming to understand the importance behind expectations and the meaning placed on the aspiration. This then helps in being able to think creatively and proactively about what value means to the different parties and what their needs are from the information we provide.
 
This also links back to being clear and distinguishing between outputs and outcomes as well as devising a clear plan to work towards the desired achievements. This plan needs to articulate what the person will be doing differently rather than a list of actions or tasks that have been completed.
 
Seeking feedback on the information provided will also ensure that there is not a mismatch between what was expected versus what was provided.
 
At Social Return, we provide regular updates and ask for feedback to continually maintain high standards of communication and transparency in our case management activities. We like to be challenged and consider this an important part of our role to achieve the best outcomes for the people we work with.
 
If you would like to find out more about outcomes and value, please contact me on the below details. 
​

We are at an exciting time in neurorehabilitation - we are discovering more and more about our brain and nervous system and how we can adapt to life-changing injuries by harnessing the potential of technology to push the boundaries of what is currently possible.

Our previously unseen electrical and brain activity can be enhanced to enable us to visualise our emotions, communicate when we can’t speak, lift limbs that we have difficulty moving.  We can be transported to far off, fantastical lands from the comfort our armchairs by putting on a VR headset, and exercise on a treadmill without being able to walk.

This is not just the stuff of Hollywood movies and fantasy novels, but real life that can be seen, touched and used in rehabilitation centres across the world right now…

So, how do we ensure that this technology is accessible, appropriate and enables the people using it to achieve their goals and aspirations?  How we do prevent exoskeletons from gathering dust in cupboards or the corners of therapy rooms? How do we justify and prove that these technologies make a difference and are worth the investment?

Firstly we need to keep in mind who the technology is for. We are adaptable, complex systems that require varied, intensive, targeted opportunities to refine and improve our abilities.  We know about “practice makes perfect” – practice needs to be the right amount, in the right place, at the right time… for a purpose and have meaning, not necessarily helping us achieve perfection. One size definitely does not fit all.

Secondly we need to coproduce, collaborate, and cooperate to share knowledge and skills – it is essential the end user is part of the team.  It is totally possible to repurpose and adapt current technologies that are already in use such as robots and VR games for the rehabilitation market.  What works in one setting does not necessarily work in others. It is a great opportunity to design and manufacture technology that is fit for purpose, which can be updated and upgraded and recycled.

Thirdly, we will still need therapists and case managers.  (You probably think that this is because I am one…”so you would say this wouldn’t you”). Technology is not a magic bullet and will not replace therapists or therapy or the need for case management.  It will enable more people to participate in high dose, high quality rehabilitation that is commissioned by case managers and structured by therapists as part of their individual rehabilitation programme.  Therapists need to be open-minded and given access to systems and training that enables them to use their clinical reasoning to consider technology as a viable option as part of their treatment plan. Case managers need to keep up to date with innovations and technologies by networking and sharing information so that our clients have the possibility of being able to access neurotechnology now and in the future when this is appropriate.

Lastly, technology has the potential to transform the rehabilitation experience of people affected by life changing injuries and our understanding of the brain and nervous system. By trialling available technologies with people who may benefit from them and being able to demonstrate tangible changes in function – enabling people to thrive, not just survive – we have the potential to create a very different future for all of us.
​
If you are curious about neurotechnology and how it could benefit your clients and services, get in touch.  I would welcome the opportunity to explore this further and share my experiences with you.

​Click Here to find out more and to watch the first interview in the series with Dr Melanie Lee, Clinical Psychologist and Director of Trust Psychology.

We would like to update you from the team here at Social Return in light of the COVID-19 outbreak in the UK, the government and NHS guidance for us all and the additional need to protect those particularly vulnerable.

In relation to our clients we have undertaken risk assessments on an individual basis, including seeking information on the policies and procedures from the individuals and services working with each of our clients. We are mindful of the need for support for some of our clients and families to respond to and cope with the current situation, particularly as it develops and the advice is updated. In terms of client visits, we are evaluating on a case by case basis if there is a need for essential contact in a physical form, inevitably there is often more than one way to achieve the outcome required. This is resulting in less face to face visits, but more in the way of remote contact by text, phone and video calls. 

Our approach ensures the highest level of safety for our clients, staff and their families and we have the flexibility from skilled experienced individuals to cover any time of sickness or isolation within the team. This ensures that there will be no pause or misstep for clients. We are also able to take on new referrals at this challenging time and work creatively to assess and support clients and families.

The Social Return team are working from home - our case managers often do some home working and so we are well set up for this. Timing-wise we were very ready for this in every way, not because we had a crystal ball but because we have been gearing up for expansion over a wider geographical area. We use a range of platforms and resources to ensure we can access tools integral to our way of working, we have a remote system of staff support, supervision, shared information and a bit of virtual office-fun to ensure the team continue to enjoy the challenges their jobs bring and that they feel enabled, supported and part of something.

I hope the information here is reassuring and as positive as it can be under the unusual circumstances we find ourselves in as a nation, indeed as a world. I thought I would share with you something that was said in an internal meeting here earlier this week - a team member said, "What we do is to work in many unique challenging situations, supporting people through difficult times and balancing their needs - and this is exactly that." 

Do please keep in contact with us, all our contact details remain the same and you should expect the same swift responses and creative thinking that you are used to from us. If you have any particular concerns do let us know and don't hesitate to call me personally if I can be of any assistance.

With kind wishes and healthy thoughts.
​

The British Association of Brain Injury Case Managers (BABICM) ‘Life of Brian’ event, will be held on the 8th October in Leicester. This event offers an unmissable 'real-life' scenario, offering step-by-step advice for brain injury and complex care professionals as well as deputies and litigators. Follow Brian on his journey from birth through his teenage years to adulthood and share in his experiences after being born with a brain injury.

BABICM have recently announced the full programme for this exciting event.

BABICM members are eligible to access a range of special offers for this event, including the earlybird discount which ends on the 27th September 2019.