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An ongoing interest of mine is to apply information technology in social work practice in
such a way that it improves the quality and efficiency of practice. Most of my effort in
this area has been devoted to developing a computer-assisted case management system, which
I have named MyAssistant. The system is designed to take the place of the
paper record in the day-to-day life of the case manager or therapist, and to use the
information in the case record to automatically generate routine reports, graph client
change, and advise on which clients need to be followed-up. MyAssistant
is currently developed to the point of a fairly full-functioning prototype.
 The main menu screen of MyAssistant
contains a list of the clients in my active caseload. Double-clicking on the highlighted
client takes me directly to a new progress note form for that client. The small window on
the lower left reminds me of which clients I need to see for psych evals, follow-up, etc.
 The service plan screen guides me
through the steps need to plan treatment goals. Lookup lists allow me to select from a
library of goals, or I can create a completely client-specific goal. Goals are expressed
in 2-10 levels which describe how the client is functioning at this point in time on that
particular goal.
 The progress note screen reminds me
which goals are active for my client, and prompts me to indicate the level at which the
client is functioning at this point in time. Picking the appropriate level from the lookup
list describes my client's functioning, but I can also enter narrative notes to elaborate
my note if I choose.
 Structuring goals in this way, and recording the level of functioning on
the progress note enables MyAssistant to graph
the client's progress. A picture is worth a thousand words, as they say. And the research
shows that graphs of client progress are inherently reinforcing to clients. MyAssistant
can use a trend line prediction to scan the cases in my caseload to bring to tell me which
cases are not making sufficient progress to reach the target level on their goals by the
target date.
For a more detailed description of the design philosophy of MyAssistant
see an abstract of my presentation at the Symposium on Computer Applications in Medical
Care.
A recent article I published in Treatment Today magazine describes what I consider to
be the essential functions of a computerized case management
system.
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