Limitations of Mental Health Case Management: A Rational Emotive and Cognitive Therapy Perspective

Since the closure of many psychiatric hospitals, case management has come to be accepted worldwide as a method of community care for the seriously mentally ill. Although case management has many commendable values, it falls short of providing a comprehensive treatment. It focuses almost exclusively on environmental interventions and largely ignores psychological elements of an individual's functioning. In particular, case management rarely provides clients with evidence-based therapy techniques, such as those developed from a cognitive-behavioral perspective. Consequently, clients with mental illness are not being provided with skills which could help them systematically reduce their emotional disturbance. It is hypothesized that the effectiveness of mental health case management may be enhanced by incorporating evidence-based psychological therapies within a community care model.