Case Management in Mental Health Recovery

Running Head: CASE MANAGEMENT IN MENTAL HEALTH RECOVERY
Case Management in Mental Health Recovery
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Case Management in Mental Health Recovery
Introduction
Medicine, in maintaining its status in the community, normally had a paternalistic belief.
Medical professionals listened to the concerns of the patients, medically checked them, ordered
investigations from the laboratory, diagnosed the illness, prescribed the medication as well as
prognosticated concerning the outcome as well as the course (Mohamed, 2017). Even though
they explained the medical issues to their clients, healthcare opinions and perspectives gave them
directions in their decision making. Clients were expected to adhere to the advice of their
medical professionals. The predominant paternalistic belief and culture within the medical field
usually dismissed the perspectives and opinions of the patient as well as did not take kindly to
the different view of objections from the patient (Jones, Zur & Rosenbaum, 2017). Mental health
study with its emphasis on functioning and symptoms established extensive evaluation,
standardised interviews as well as rating levels to monitor and document psychopathology. It
should be noted that these assessments were used to measure negative and positive symptoms of
psychosis, anxiety and depression, functioning as well as deficiency in cognition (Wagner et al.
2017). The initial achievement of the psychotropic medication in minimising psychotic
symptoms as well as reducing depression and anxiety resulted in medical professionals
harbouring hope and optimism that individuals with these conditions will fully get well and
recover from their mental disorders and go back to a normal life.
However, five years later, medical professionals accepted that a vital segment of people
having mental disorders continued to have an unstable as well as persistent psychotic symptoms
and was unable to lead a normal life again (Grube & Mendenhall, 2016). Nevertheless, the need

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for innovative and newer psychotropic medication meant a continued emphasis on residual
deficits as well as symptoms. The medical professionals have identified case management as the
newer strategy for a total recovery for mental illness. This paper will discuss the concept of case
management in the recovery process of mental illness.
The concept of mental recovery
A related development in mental rehabilitation in present years is the idea of recovery.
Mental recovery has become the final objective of treatment of individuals having chronic
mental illness in many societies. In spite the lack of universal description of recovery, the
description that has been mostly accepted states that; recovery is a way of life, a process, an
attitude and a way of approaching the daily challenges (Stergiopoulos et al. 2016). Recovery is
an extensive notion of entailing both the outcome as well process. Recovery is concerned with an
attitude and a way of life. Thus, it should be noted that there is no endpoint in the process of
recovery. A person who has recovered will not struggle again with mental illness and experience
psychotic symptoms. He or she can no longer use mental health services as well as mental health
medication.
On the other hand, that individual has accepted his or her struggles and symptoms,
thinking ahead positively and taking proactive control of his or her life. Different researchers
have come up with components which may encourage recovery process in individuals having a
mental illness, including taking responsibility for one’s wellness, having hope, efficient
management of an individual’s disability, creating a self-identity with potential as well as
developing a sense of goal in life. There are four stages of the metal recovery process, that is,
overwhelmed with mental illness, struggling with mental illness, living with mental illness, and

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living beyond mental illness. These stages represent advanced components towards mental
recovery with greater stages attributed to an increase in the process of mental illness
management, regaining self-autonomy, having a sense of hope, taking responsibility as well as
having positive results of improving role performance (Holloway, Cruise, Downs, Monahan &
Aalsma, 2017).
Models Case management in the United States of America
In the last century, case management has slowly been accepted and integrated as a way of
dealing with shortcomings of community health management. Case management is considered as
one of the primary healthcare services provided to people as well as families who have mental
illness and experiencing homelessness (Hagger, 2015). Case management is defined as services
which are provided to people to develop their skills to gain access to housing, medical,
employment, behavioural health, educational, social, and other vital services to meet their
significant human services. It also involves providing the training and linkages for the clients
served in the utilisation of key resources in the community as well as monitoring the whole
service delivery. Case management can also be defined as the collaborative process of planning,
treatment, care coordination, advocacy, evaluation and assessment of services and options to
meet health needs of the family and an individual through therapeutic communication and the
available resources to enhance cost intensive outcomes. Even though these specified general
roles represent entirely what the case managers do their patients, the daily responsibilities of a
case manager usually vary according to the needs of the patients.
Case managers operate with individuals and families having mental illness and
experiencing homelessness as well as people who are at risk of experiencing homelessness. Even