Introducing physicians to case management in psychiatry.

All physicians sooner or later find themselves in contact with a case manager whose job is to help the noninstitutionalized psychiatric patient who is chronically ill. This paper is an attempt to orient the physician about this phase of treatment which started not many years ago. The article gives a short history of the development of case management and demonstrates the various steps the case manager takes in working with a patient. These are, assessment of the problems, plans to meet the problems, linkage with agencies, monitoring the progress, advocacy, and evaluation. These activities may bring about improvement in the kind of patient frequently considered hopeless.