The role of a Care Manager
A care manager is central to the support and wellbeing of clients with care at home needs following catastrophic injury and involves a complex range of responsibilities that combine to ensure the consistent and professional delivery of care plans on a daily basis. Care Managers traditionally work with care agencies who are contracted to oversee the entirety of a client’s care (known as managed care). Bush Care Solutions now provide this service as a part of their direct recruitment offering, amalgamating managed care with direct recruitment.
Serving as a point of contact between the patient and their network of care providers, care managers are required to possess considerable leadership, communication, and organisational skills to ensure clients receive optimal levels of care. The specific requirements of the role differ according to the setting but will invariably include the following main responsibilities:
- Safeguarding the delivery of high-quality care - the core function of a care manager is to develop a deep understanding of client needs and coordinate the required resources to ensure they are met. This can include regularly reviewing medical records to proactively identify and address potential issues.
- Build effective relationships – interpersonal skills are crucial in building lasting relationships with clients, staff, families, and external partners to allow positive communication related to the clients care needs. This may include collaborating with case managers where applicable or connecting clients with support systems available in their community.
- Staff recruitment, training, and supervision – an intimate understanding of client needs enables care managers to recruit direct employment support workers and nurses with the necessary qualities and level of skill. Delivering initial and ongoing training will eliminate knowledge gaps and ensure all care providers can perform the daily tasks needed to maintain quality care.
Ensuring care settings meet recognised standards is a prerequisite and care managers from Bush Care Solutions are regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), guaranteeing care settings meet recognised standards and care provision is of the highest quality.
Care managers and case managers are not the same
Care managers and case managers are both involved in the planning and coordination of client care and although they often work closely together, there are key variations in the roles and different levels of specialist clinical knowledge required.
Whilst case management involves oversight of the entire rehabilitation and recovery process, care managers work individually with clients and are focused on the provision on on-going care over the long-term, the quality of care, and the transition between various stages or treatments.
Care management remains dedicated to coordinating the quality and delivery of medical care and does not engage in the financial or legal aspects of care provision, which are addressed within case management. Care managers, therefore, adopt patient care post-settlement and when case management is also involved, they collaborate closely with the case manager to define and deliver the appropriate care plan.
Some key areas a care manager oversees include:
- Regular home visits, with risk assessments undertaken to ensure properties are suitable and that any changes needed are identified and addressed.
- Care planning with the client and/or their family to ensure that their needs are met in a person-centred manner
- Risk assessments in line with clinical recommendations to ensure the safety of the client and support staff working with them and before travel to evaluate proposed routes and accommodation
- Support access to specialist therapies or rehabilitation programs prescribed by a case manager
- Providing advice to clients and their families on a wide range of medical and non-medical areas to identify possible improvements to the level and type of care needed
Bush & Co Care Managers
Our dedicated care managers provide support to clients with complex care needs to live fulfilling lives and engage in activities that sometimes require significant planning. Danielle Marchant is one of our Care Managers and recalls examples of where she has helped clients:
“My client was travelling by car to Latvia and passing through France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Poland on their route. I worked with the case manager and family to perform risk assessments on each of the hotels they planned to stay at to ensure they had appropriate equipment to accommodate my client safely. This required considerable skill to overcome the different language variants. Other considerations, such as ensuring satellite navigation was installed in the vehicle and mobile phones had data roaming capability, had to be incorporated into the planning.”
Bush Care Solutions
Bush Care Solutions supports clients with access to a comprehensive range of patient-led and cost-effective solutions to oversee their care. Services use the direct employment model, with dedicated care professionals from Bush & Co operating under delegated responsibility to oversee a patient’s care plan and perform a supervisory role over directly employed support workers.
Sources of funding include settlements from court action, or a local authority personal health budget, with bespoke packages of care developed and implemented to align with client needs. Control is placed with the client as the recognised employer, with support from their care manager. Once support workers are recruited, the client has continuity within their care team and the opportunity to develop trusted relationships with those providing their care.
