Abstract: Case Management Practice during COVID-19: The Workers' Experience (Society for Social Work and Research 28th Annual Conference - Recentering & Democratizing Knowledge: The Next 30 Years of Social Work Science)
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377P Case Management Practice during COVID-19: The Workers' Experience

Schedule:
Friday, January 12, 2024
Marquis BR Salon 6, ML 2 (Marriott Marquis Washington DC)
* noted as presenting author
Mary Rita Weller, PhD, Assistant Professor, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, Kutztown, PA
Lydia DeBiase, DSW, Assistant Professor, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, Kutztown, PA
John Vafeas, DSW, Professor, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, Kutztown, PA
Objective:

This study's main purpose was to examine the practice of case management during COVID-19 and while the pandemic was still in effect. This study examined the following research questions:

  1. Who were the case managers in the study and how did they identify themselves?
  2. How did case managers perceive job satisfaction before and during COVID-19?
  3. What were case managers and persons-served preferences for service delivery modality?
  4. How did the practice offered during COVID-19 affect the case managers’ professional relationship to constituents?
  5. How did the practice offered during COVID-19 affect the work performance of administrative functions of case managers?
  6. What was COVID-19's effect on executing the case management process phases?

Method:

Used a national survey that consisted of 41 multiple choice and short answers format. SurveyMonkey was utilized which resulted in a sample of 187 from 17 states. Survey data were transferred from a SurveyMonkey into an Excel spreadsheet and corrected for errors. Five open-ended questions on the instrument were to find trends and experiences for case managers using mitigation efforts during COVID-19 were coded and themes were set up. The clean dataset was processed using SPSS v26. Descriptive statistics were run on all variables and selected bivariate and multivariate techniques were applied to inform the inferences and analysis while the open-ended questions were manually coded and themed for thematic qualitative analysis.

Results:

Findings showed that, unlike before COVID-19, most case management practices pivoted to telehealth using online platforms. In terms of job satisfaction, 59% of case managers were satisfied both before and during COVID-19. However, a significant number of satisfied case managers (20%) before became less satisfied during the COVID-19 period. These differences were statistically significant (x2 =4.05, df = 1, p<.05). Case managers supported the use of telehealth and in-person services during COVID-19 and felt supported by their colleagues and supervisors. They had flexibility in work hours and could stay connected through a variety of methods, but mostly virtually with very few reporting in-person contact with colleagues and supervisors. Overall, case managers felt they were able to connect, assess, plan, monitor, and evaluate services with the people served but reported challenges when it came to connecting people with needed services and engaging support systems for those individuals.

DISCUSSION

Further research can look at ways to help case managers involve the persons served support system and continue networking with agencies for needed resources.

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