PSYCHOLOGICAL WORK IN CASE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE: ANALYSIS OF IMPLEMENTATION EXPERIENCE

Abstract

Numerous situations of deprivation of people that are historically repeated actualize requests for effective, technologically-structured methods of assistance.  Contemporary position of  Ukraine in the hybrid war, accompanied by a situation of forced displacement of people, the annexation of Crimea and hostilities in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, have intensified the issues of support provision measures (financial, social, psychological, etc.) in order to strengthen the ability of people to improve their own living conditions.

At the same time, while providing professional assistance the probability of its negative social consequences should be taken into account, in other words - the side effects of this process may include both consumerism and the phenomena of acquired helplessness. The case management method has proven itself to be effective in resolving a number of issues related to the provision of individual assistance to the clients. As a method of teamwork, case management anticipates involvement of various resources and specialists into the process of solving a client's life situation, namely: psychologists, lawyers, and educators. At present, the study of the mechanisms of such cooperation is not sufficiently presented in the theoretical and practical domestic literary sources and needs to be studied in the future.

In the article, scientific investigations regarding the participation of a psychologist in domestic social practices of case management application are carried out, as well as data are provided on the peculiarities of the process of incorporating a psychologist into a teamwork in the field of child protection.  The information sources on social work with clients and the author's own psychological practice in working with clients in the child protection system served as materials for research. The research methods included a theoretical analysis of literary sources and information about the application of case management in the practice of social work, as well as the observation and analysis of cases from the author's own practice.

In practice, Ukrainian realities confirm the effectiveness of the main positions of the case management method implementation, regardless of the country structure and social situation.  It is argued that the effectiveness of case management application covers the clarity of structuring the process based on the effectiveness of the norms of social processes regulating, focusing on the goals and client’s needs, avoiding processes of depreciation of the client's strength, and observing the social work principles implemented in the community, as well as mutual enhancement of professional competence of the teams” participants, one of whom is a psychologist.

Restrictions on the effective cooperation of a psychologist in the  case management includes the following items: different subordination, which requires additional documents to regulate joint case management activities;  lack of teamwork knowledge about different methods (multidisciplinary, transdisciplinary, interdisciplinary) implementation and misunderstanding of their differences, which complicates communication and is essential for the organization of teamwork;  poor training of a psychologist to work in a team together with a social worker, lack of standardized approaches to assessing a client's situation. In addition, the conditionality of methods used by a psychologist within the school's framework can influence both the consistency of client’s support provision and the overall effectiveness of teamwork.  Harmonization of conceptual approaches to professional work, probable differences in the corporate interests of organizations involved in teamwork, as well as the risks of compliance with professional ethical principles also become issues that need to be resolved.

It is believed that the introduction of the basics of case management as a method of team work, approaches to its evaluation, and management and monitoring tools into the training of psychologists can improve cooperation of specialists and enhance the effectiveness of assistance provision to the clients due to implementation of the case management method into the practice.