CRC builds capacity in case management

Helping Children Worldwide celebrates World Social Work Day (March 19) by highlighting the excellent work of the CRC’s Case Management Team.  The CRC is focused on continuing to provide the best support possible to children and families in its programs, now through a case management system that is growing stronger every day.  Plans to continue to build capacity include installation of a case management database, ongoing professional dialogue with others in the field, and a Case Managers’ Learning Collaborative project launching this July.  

Following in the footsteps of Mercy Hospital’s recent installation of an Electronic Medical Information System (EMIS), the CRC is also hard at work developing and installing an Electronic Case Management System (ECMS).  The ECMS will enable case managers create and update individual, electronic case files for each of the children in their caseload, while ensuring confidentiality of sensitive information. All case files will be stored on a common server and Case Management Supervisor David Musa will have oversight of the CRCs entire caseload of 560 students.  Eventually, aggregate data collected to analyze trends and improve and strengthen the program will be available through this system as well. Joseph Lamin, of Mercy Research Lab, Mercy Statistician Ishmael Vandi, and HCW Intern Sam Bundren will assist the Systems Coordinator and Database Manager Johanese Bans and the rest of the case management team with getting the system set up and for training the staff in its use.  

This month, the CRC launched a bi-monthly Case Management Zoom Teleconference with experienced social workers/case managers in the US.  These calls are designed to create a space for case managers on both sides of the ocean to share best practices and strategies in case management, trouble-shoot particularly difficult cases, and engage in professional dialogue with colleagues.  

A small team of US case managers will join HCW’s July UMVIM team to launch the first Case Managers’ Learning Collaborative.  Modeled after the successful Teachers’ Learning Collaborative launched last summer, the project will allow case managers from the US and Sierra Leone to share case management strategies with one another as equals.  The project will include staff from two other Bo Children’s Homes, as well as representatives from the Ministry of Social Welfare and Gender Affairs.

Currently there is no formal, government-run case management system for vulnerable children in Sierra Leone.  UNICEF is launching a three year project focused on strengthening the child protection system in Sierra Leone by building capacity of the government leading the application of a national Case Management System, which will ensure registration, assessment and needs-based referral for services, and follow-up for vulnerable children.  Once that system comes online, the CRC will be ready to shift to connect to the national database.