Housing and Support Program (HASP): Final Evaluation Report

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Section 4 The process of providing clinical, non-clinical
and housing services to clients
4.4 Section summary
Case Managers were held in high regard by clients.
Many clients attributed improvements in their health
to their Case Manager. Indeed, over 60% of clients
believed that their Case Manager had helped them
with their symptoms. Consistency in the same Case
Manager was valued by clients and support staff.
However, only 6% of clients had the same Case
Manager for the entire 12 months prior to interview.
Notwithstanding this, most clients (89%) indicated
that they could get in contact with their Case Manager
if they had a problem. Over 78% of clients felt that
Case Managers understood their problems and
91% claimed to know what their medications were
used for.
Both Case Managers and support workers expressed
satisfaction with the collaborative working
relationships they had developed. Ninety-fi ve percent
of Case Managers outlined that they valued the
support worker role and 92% felt that support workers
had a valuable role to play in the treatment planning
process. However, support workers raised concerns
about Case Manager involvement in HASP and felt
that Case Managers could play a greater role in the
overall program. Reasons highlighted for the perceived
lack of involvement included the high caseloads that
some Case Managers were expected to carry and the
presence of support workers in the lives of the clients.
Case Managers carried out their role in the knowledge
that support workers would contact them should they
observed changes in client functioning. This fi nding
supports earlier work in New South Wales that found
Case Managers had less involvement with clients
supported by NGOs due to the auxiliary services
provided by support workers (Muir et al., 2006).
Final Evaluation Report
Thirty-two different support agencies (n=32) provide
services to the 80 clients enrolled in the evaluation.
All of these agencies have different levels of
experience in the provision of support to individuals
with mental illness. Nonetheless, consumers see the
interventions provided by support workers as being
instrumental in maintaining them in their chosen
community. Overall, 85% of clients were satisfi ed/very
satisfi ed with the activities that support workers do
for/with them.
Support workers felt, as a result of their interactions
with Case Managers, that they had an important role
to play in the treatment process. However, just over
half (54%) agreed that Case Managers had provided
them with as much information as they needed. Six in
every 10 support workers expressed a desire to have
a greater say in the services provided to HASP clients.
Only one-third of support workers indicated that they
were involved in developing care plans for clients.
However, in most support agencies this task
is managed by the Supports Coordinator who passes
on relevant information to the support workers.
The training of support workers was raised by Case
Managers (and support workers themselves). Both
groups felt that support workers required more
training in a range of areas so as to be more effective
in the provision of services to clients with complex
needs. Almost half of the support workers (45%) who
participated felt that they needed more training to be
able to work effectively with their HASP clients.
Finally, the level of support required by clients seems
to decrease with the passage of time. Support hours
provided each week decreased by an average of 7.13
hours from a mean of 27.6 hours on entry into HASP
to a mean of 20.4 hours at the follow-up time-point.