Abstract
Case management is prevalent in the areas for helping the elder and the physically handicapped in Japan. This article discusses the possibility of introducing case management into the mental health area. The content of this article is to explain the historical background of establishing case management in the mental health area and present a recent model of case management for persons with schizophrenia, and point out a weak function of case management, studying some articles in the U.S. First, the discussion of the historical background clarifies the positive and negative causes of introducing case management into the mental health area in the U.S. Second, a recent model of case management shows that we especially have to discuss the following points. They are to establish assessment models for the purpose of doing case management in the mental health area, and use the skill of case management for each treatment task. Third, a weak function of case management is to develop social resources. If Japanese practitioners introduce case management into the mental health area, they will have to discuss the tasks above. Especially, psychiatric social workers have to examine social resources in the mental health area in Japan I would like to thank Dean James H. Ward, Ph.D. and Vikki Vandiver, Ph.D. at the Graduate School of Social Work in Portland State University.
