Course Title: Advanced Case Management and Service Delivery

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Advanced Case Management and Service Delivery

Credit Points: 12.00


Course Code

Campus

Career

School

Learning Mode

Teaching Period(s)

HWSS2104

Bundoora Campus

Undergraduate

150H Health Sciences

Distance / Correspondence or Face-to-Face

Sem 2 2006,
Sem 2 2007,
Sem 2 2008,
Sem 2 2009,
Sem 2 2010

HWSS2104

Bundoora Campus

Undergraduate

150H Health Sciences

Face-to-Face

Sem 2 2011,
Sem 2 2012,
Sem 2 2013

Course Coordinator: Assoc Professor Jeff Walkley

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 7359

Course Coordinator Email: jeff.walkley@rmit.edu.au


Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

This course will build on the capabilities and knowledge developed in the courses, which it is expected students will have undertaken:

  • Positive Behaviour Support
  • Advanced Professional Practice A
  • Disability Case Management


Course Description

This course is designed to develop advanced capabilities that are required to work with people who have a disability and complex needs such as extensive to pervasive support needs, dual diagnosis (including mental illness and substance abuse), and offending behaviours. Students will develop capabilities in assessment, intervention and support strategies. They will be challenged to integrate personal values with service values, when working with people whose behaviours or life choices are not generally socially accepted. Students will develop skills to negotiate access to opportunities for clients whose behaviours pose a risk to themselves or the community, and facilitation of individual and community capacity.


Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

Students will develop a range of professional capabilities

Evidence based practice

2.1 Ability to employ a variety of approaches and procedures to inquiry and research that permit judgments and decisions to be clearly substantiated.

  • Treatment strategies
  • Specialist service delivery

2.2 Ability to ask the “right” questions and identify the information required that ensure practices are supported by appropriate evidence.

  • Counseling and interviewing skills
  • Assessment of offending and problematic behaviours

2.3 Ability to gather, synthesise and evaluate information that places practice within a global and local context.

  • At risk adolescence
  • Offending and risk behaviours
  • Justice and forensic issues
  • Substance use and abuse
  • Recidivism
  • The development of offending behaviours

Problem solving and diagnosis

3.1 Ability to apply knowledge to diagnose and solve problems in situations that range from simple and discrete to complex and ill-defined.

  • Problem solving

3.2 Ability to work independently and with others to identify and resolve problems of mutual concern in constructive and creative

  • Specialist case management practice

Communication

4.1 Ability to engage in dialogue with a diverse range of individuals and groups/teams including clients, professionals and community groups.

  • Negotiation
  • Counseling skill
  • Conflict resolution
  • Crisis management

4.2 Ability to communicate in a range of forms (written, electronic, graphic, oral) and to tailor the style and means of communication to the circumstances of the situation and capabilities of the audience.

  • Report writing
  • Forensic and court reports

Strategic thinking and action

5.1 Ability to adopt a strategic view where problems are connected with a larger system (the bigger picture) and where feasible solutions must balance the future goals and aspirations of many stakeholders (the long term view).

  • Risk management

5.2 Ability to link strategic thinking with operational action – to use an holistic and long term perspective (strategic) to inform day to day (operational) decisions and actions.

  • Priority setting
  • Planning and implementing strategies

5.3 Ability to deal with changing circumstances by integrating strategic and operational thinking and action in an ongoing cycle of researching, planning and evaluating.

  • Develop and implement justice plans.

Socially aware and responsible practice

6.1 Ability to recognize and make informed judgments about the impact of the profession on the sustainability for policy and practice for individual and community capacity building.

  • Identify risk behaviours and factors and implement primary, secondary and tertiary prevention strategies.

6.2 Ability to appreciate levels of risk based on a clear understanding of relevant legal and regulatory frameworks.

  • Assessment of risk
  • Legal requirements
     

Integration of personal values with service values

7.1 Ability to maintain tolerance and respect for individuals and groups from diverse backgrounds and holding diverse values.

  • Self reflection
  • Cultural issues

7.2 Ability to clearly articulate and apply an ethical position that guides personal behaviour in all aspects of professional practice.

  • Professional responsibilities and boundaries
  • Ethics

Facilitation

8.1 Ability to build networks of collaborative partnerships with clients, colleagues, other professionals and the community.

  • The criminal justice system
  • Protective services

8.2 Ability to build capacity of others.

  • Positive behaviour management
  • Skill development for people with complex needs

8.3 Ability to develop open and flexible relationships that promote the capacity to adapt with evolving needs and aspirations.

  • Negotiate with a range of stakeholders to ensure the needs and aspirations of individuals with complex needs are met.


At the completion of the course, students should be able to:

  • Identify and implement effective treatment strategies for a range of offending behaviours
  • Conduct problem exploration interviews
  • Conduct assessments for offending problematic assessments, such as the Assessment of Sexual Knowledge
  • Describe the processes and mechanisms of the criminal justice system.
  • Describe the factors that influence the development of problematic or offending behaviours.
  • Apply a problem solving approach to complex issues
  • Apply specialist skills within a case management framework
  • Communicate with a diverse range of individuals, stakeholder groups and communities
  • Write professional reports
  • Impart information in a manner that is understandable to people with diverse levels of comprehension
  • Apply a problem solving approach to real world situations
  • Develop and implement plans that are timely, flexible, long term, and short term.
  • Write and implement justice plans
  • Plan and implement primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention strategies
  • Understand risk factors and management strategies
  • Conduct risk assessments
  • Be aware of their own values in relation to those of other individuals and groups
  • Recognise moral and ethical dilemmas
  • Identify strategies for personal ethical behaviour
  • Understand the opportunities and supports for people with complex needs
  • Implement strategies for skill building within the context of positive behaviour management
  • Establish networks and relationships with community based opportunities


Overview of Learning Activities

The major focus of learning in this course will be the application of previously learnt principles in the context of working with people with disabilities who have complex needs. The use of scenarios and real world applications will be the mainstay with students applying their learning in a practical sense. Field visits, problem solving tasks, and applied projects will be included as some of the learning activities.  It is expected that students will share resources they have found with each other, for which purpose times will be scheduled. 


Overview of Learning Resources

Students will attend lectures and participate in tutorial-style discussion.  Some lecture notes will be available via myRMIT.  Reference material will be suggested throughout the semester.  However, students will be expected to independently research reading material to complement lectures.

Key text include

Bouras, N (ED) (2007) Psychiatric and Behavioural Disorders in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 2nd Edition, King’s College London. Cambridge University Press. 
 

Meadows,  G. Singh, B. Grigg,M. (Eds), Mental health in Australia, second edition, Oxford University Press 2007.

Mohr, C., Tonge, B et al. (2005). "The development of a new measure for the assessment of psychopathology in adults with intellectual disability." Journal of Intellectual Disability Research 49(7): 469-480.

 


Overview of Assessment

The students will undertake formative and summative assessments throughout the course. The emphasis of assessments will be on the demonstration of the knowledge and skills gained through the course.

Assessment tasks will focus on the students’ application of the skills they have acquired and through this they will receive feedback in relation to their ability to identify critical issues, assess risk, negotiate opportunities, write professional reports, plan and implement primary and secondary prevention strategies, and recognise the features of effective tertiary prevention strategies.  The assessment will focus on real issues and require real responses so that students can demonstrate skills that mirror those required in the workplace.

There will be mid-term (week 7) and final term (week 13) multiple choice tests. Each multiple choice exam is worth 20% (40% of total marks)

There will also be two essays for the course. Essay one is due in week 7 of the course and essay two is due in week 12 of the course.
Each essay will contribute 30% to the final grade.