Integrated case management : a preliminary study to determine what helps and what hinders - the parent perspective

This preliminary study explored what helped and hindered the Integrated Case Management Care Team process from the parents' perspective. The researcher conducted 8 semi-structured interviews with 10 parents of children who have had an ICM Care Team within the past 3 years. The data was analyzed using Flanagan's (1954) Critical Incident Technique (CIT). In striving to meet modern standards for the CIT (Butterfield, Borgen, Amundson, & Maglio, 1005), several procedures were used to examine the reliability and validity of the categories. One hundred eighteen incidents were found to be helpful in achieving the aims of the Care Team, while 60 were found to be hindering in achieving those aims. A total of 8 categories and 15 subcategories became the organizational scheme of the data. A majority of the incidents are represented by these categories: (a) Structure and Function of the Team (b) Outcomes (c) The Team Members (d) Communication and (e) Cultural Issues. As in previous studies (e.g., Rutman, Hubberstey, Hume, & Tait, 1998), communication was found to be a vital aspect of ICM. An overarching these that emerged is that parents value the care team process and the commitment that the members demonstrate towards their children. However they also all expressed concerns with the agencies providing services to children and with the school system - and this often was related to budgets, power, and bureaucracy. Several helpful hints for successful Care Teams are provided. The parents in this study emphasized that they need to feel valued and respected as members of their child's Care Team. Moreover, they stated that this is achieved when they are involved in decision making, when they are treated as equal to other team members, and when they are regarded as being an expert on their own child.--Page iii.