Case Management: Getting Your Life On Track

Recovering from an opioid addiction can be so overwhelming that your daily routine can be a struggle to get through. The demands of your health, bills, social life, and family may seem to be all too much, especially if you are wanting to be healthier, find a job, or mend relationships. With the help of a case manager, you can work on your to-do list with someone that has your best interest at heart.

What Is a Case Manager?

A case manager can be extremely useful in guiding a patient through recovery and all of the steps needed to stay on top of their treatment. Case management can be described as a partnered approach between the case manager and the patient to work on their overall health, their substance abuse disorder, their mental health, and introducing them to services that can help their day-to-day life.

What Are the Benefits of Having a Case Manager?

A case manager provides multiple forms of support so that the person in recovery is receiving the best overall care possible. Under the case management guides, the achievement of patient recovery comes through:

Goal planning and monitoring treatment for case management

• Communicating with the patient in a positive, supportive way

• Educating the patient on the dangers of relapse, how important it is to have a productive, daily routine, and how to have positive relationships with family and peers

• Find support groups

• Helping to write resumes and find employment

• Researching government assistance programs to help pay for housing, food, and health care

A case manager works directly with you while you are in recovery. A huge relief to patients and their family members is that case managers can work closely with physicians and pharmacists to monitor patients’ prescriptions from all prescribers. For instance, a patient might receive an opioid prescription from a surgeon, and an anxiety prescription from another physician. Some combinations could lead to an overdose, and neither doctor knows about the other’s prescription. Under a case management program, the case manager can take the burden off of patients and family members by staying on top of all medications that are currently being used.

Another benefit of having a case manager is that they do a tremendous job of educating patients about the dangers of opioids. A good case manager is well aware of the alarming statistics regarding opioid abuse in this country and will provide the necessary tools to help patients from relapsing.

The most important thing to remember is that a good case manager is the patient’s advocate. One of the main benefits of a case manager is that you have someone working with you to achieve an optimum level of wellness and functional capability. The result is that everyone benefits.

1 https://store.samhsa.gov/shin/content/SMA15-4215/SMA15-4215.pdf