THE CAPTAIN AND COACH APPROACH TO CASE MANAGEMENT! HOW TO USE MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING, SOCIAL SYSTEMS STRATEGIES AND OTHER INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO REINVENT CASE MANAGEMENT

While much has changed in the world of workforce development over the last few decades, the approach to case management has remained the same.  Job seekers report that case management often feels like a subservient relationship with the case manager having all the power.  Hard-to-employ adults and youth do not respond well to this dynamic because it feels too dominating even when done by the most well-meaning case managers.  This old approach to case management inadvertently works against people making employment progress because it activates the resistance to authority figures that is common in the hard-to-employ.

Case managers also report a lot of frustration with the current model. Hard-to-employ job seekers do not follow through on what has been discussed in the case management sessions.  Many case managers feel like they often work harder to help the job seeker than the job seekers work to help themselves.  Case managers are tired of the relapse into old behaviors that is a chronic problem with the old model of case management.  Despite these problems, case managers are still working in an outdated model because they don’t have another way of working.  Case managers are burning out because of the on-going use of antiquated ineffective approaches to case management that do not meet the challenges they are facing today.

These are some of the many limitations and gaps between the traditional case management model and today’s hard-to-employ job seekers.  It is clear that current case management practices are not working.  The Captain and Coach Approach to Case Management is a revolutionary new approach to working with all types of adult and youth job seekers.  This radically different way of working addresses these issues and takes employment counseling to a new place designed to empower people to lead their own employment process.  It changes the entire paradigm of the old case management relationship.  The changes start with orientation, the very first words the staff person says in the initial session and continues to change everything about the staff and job seeker dynamic.

In this new model, job seekers and staff are seen as a team with the job seeker in the role of captain and the staff person in the role of a supportive coach.  The coach guides the job seeker through a goal setting, option sorting and decision making learning process.  The job seeker makes choices and takes responsibility for their outcomes because the choices come from them and are not imposed on them by the case manager. They lead and make progress like the captain of a sports team with the backing of their coach.

One of the biggest weaknesses in traditional case management is that it does not address the powerful hidden influence of anti-work friends, family and other people in the community on the lives of the job seeker.  This social system of the hard-to-employ people that surrounds the job seekers we work with is typically filled with anti-work individuals and some pro-work individuals.  This system takes over when people leave their meeting with their case manager.  It discourages employment progress and it is a powerful reason that people relapse into old anti-work behaviors and attitudes.

Traditional case management completely overlooks these forces. This lack of a holistic perspective about the influences on the job seeker explains why people do not make more progress.  The anti-work people are hard at work to erase any progress toward employment.  This new model uses social systems theory to help the captain identify the pro and anti-work people in their lives.  The pro-work people are organized by the captain with the help of the coach into a supportive team that will help the captain resist the influence of the anti-work individuals.  Strategies are developed to help the captain anticipate and overcome how the anti-work individuals will try to sabotage the progress of the captain. Using this model your new “client” is not just the individual, but also their social system that can provide wrap around support to help the captain stay on the pathway to employment progress.

In this new model, we take a very different approach to addressing barriers to employment.  The webinar will show you how to walk alongside the captain and see the barrier through their eyes.  Learn how to see what benefits the captain gets from the barrier and find out how to introduce change talk that helps the captain reevaluate the supposed benefits that come from the barrier.  Instead of just sounding critical about the barrier like in the old case management model, we work to understand the barrier and help the captain reframe how it fits into their future.

Stop wasting your time with outdated approaches to case management!

Regardless of what population you serve, what your job title is or what type of program you work in, if you want to transform your work into the best state-of-the-art practices in in workforce development, then take this webinar and make the way you work into the Captain and Coach Approach to Case Management!