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Picture 1:
Painting by resident, James
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A staff of two full-time
social workers, including our Program
Director and Recovery
Readiness Coordinator, provide on-site case management services
at Belle Reve. Case management is the appropriate individualization and
coordination of a myriad of services needed by our clients.
In most instances, an
individual or family arriving at Belle Reve has no access to all of the
needed services. Many residents are not receiving the Social Security Disability Insurance
and Supplemental Security Income
benefits that are due to them. Many have no access to regular medical care,
medication, mental health services, transportation to and from
appointments, substance abuse counseling, nutritional services,
prescription glasses, dental care, and other needed services. Our case
managers assess each individual’s and family’s needs, determining which
services are needed in each individual case. Our social workers, in the
course of performing case management duties, prepare all necessary
paperwork for residents to receive income benefits and perform all follow
up until benefits are received; order monthly supplies of medications for
residents; enroll all new residents into the Recovery Readiness Program, scheduling
group and individual counseling sessions; set appointments for outside
medical and health related services, including Dental,
prescription glasses, psychiatric, psychotherapy (if not obtained on
site), nutritional counseling, etc.; arrange transportation to and from
health related appointments; maintain client charts, performing regular
updates to client profiles and goals; and refer to all needed services. If
the case manager deems that a resident is capable of making his/her own
appointments with help from the case manager as needed, the resident will
be encouraged to manage his/her own affairs, which helps to strengthen
self-sufficiency.
Belle Reve has plans to
create a new staff position of R.N. Case Manager. Once funding is received
for this position, a registered nurse will be able to expand upon the tasks
performed by our current case managers by performing additional medical
services that our licensed social workers cannot provide. An R.N. Case
Manager will both free up the time of our Social Work staff to focus more
specifically on mental health counseling, program development, and intake
evaluations, and further expand our ability to meet the medical needs of
our residents. An R.N. Case Manager will perform physical evaluations
including monitoring of blood pressure, temperature, weight, and changes in
medical state. She/he will be charged with all aspects of medication
management.
Additionally, an R.N.
Case Manager will help clients to avoid unnecessary emergency room visits
and to receive all appropriate care when necessary. Often, when a client is
in need of any level of immediate medical service, he must be transported
to the free clinic emergency room, where waiting times are often as long as
twelve to fourteen hours before being seen by a medical professional. Many
times, a resident is unwilling or unable to wait in a crowded emergency
room for an extended period of time while feeling ill and uncomfortable. A
resident often will take the chance of leaving an emergent condition
untreated, rather than face the discomforts of an emergency room visit. Our
R.N. Case Manager will assess a resident’s condition prior to an emergency
room visit, leaving ER visits to only the most necessary cases. Our R.N.
Case Manager will assist in all aspects of regular health and medication
monitoring, education, and assistance.
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