The New American Social Work Gospel: Case Management of the Chronically Mentally III

Correspondence to Dr R. A. Cnaan, School of Social Work, University of Pennsylvania, 3701 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. Summary Case management is currently the most popular mode of servicedelivery in the United States, especially in community programsfor chronically mentally ill people. Proponents of case managementclaim that it is cost-effective and that it assures provisionof necessary services to clients. In this paper I do not challengeits effectiveness but argue that case management neither empowersclients nor is it free of drawbacks. Given that many countriestend to model the United States, foreign social workers andother human service professionals should first examine the usefulnessof case management vis-à-vis their own cultural and economiccontexts, especially in the light of its many drawbacks.