Best Practices in Case Management in Florida

Throughout their lives, and depending on their age, their needs, and the service delivery systems that support them, children and adults with I/DD and their caregivers interact with a variety of providers. Across service systems, people have access to case managers or service coordinators to develop a plan of care and coordinate the services identified in those plans. Case management professionals have diverse titles and job functions, yet no universal set of responsibilities defines their role or requisite job competencies across all service systems which can impact the quality and consistency of support services received. 

In its Five-Year State Plan (2022–2026), the FDDC identified establishing a high-quality system for ensuring best practices in case management as key to improving access to HCBS in the state.

 

Mathematica conducted an environmental scan and identified six core competencies of case management professionals. Drawing on the results of the environmental scan along with the expertise of a 23-member work group, we developed a set of tools to assess the competence of case management professionals. This toolkit includes the following components: 

• A case management competency list that identifies core competencies for case management professionals based on results of the environmental scan and input from the work group
• A competency matrix that establishes three levels of performance for each competency standard (with Level 1 describing case managers who are “not meeting” the competency standard, Level 2 describing those “meeting” the competency standard, and Level 3 describing those “performing above” the competency standard). 
• Four user-facing survey tools that will gather information on case manager performance from four perspectives: 
  · Program participants
  · Caregivers
  · Case managers (in the form of a self-reflection) 
  · Supervisors or program managers 

Information collected from each perspective can be combined, scored, and used to assess case manager performance and identify opportunities for growth and skill development. 

 

This project is provided by the Florida Developmental Disabilities Council, Inc., supported in part by grant numbers 2101FLSCDD and 2201FLSCDD from the U.S. Administration for Community Living (ACL), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Washington, D.C. 20201 funded by ACL/HHS. Grantees undertaking projects with government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their findings and conclusions. Points of view or opinions do not, therefore, necessarily represent official ACL policy and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by ACL/HHS or the U.S. Government.