A Life Managed or a Life Lived? A parental view on case management

Abstract

The author describes a common case management model where a worker in an accommodation support service doubles as a case manager. Knox demonstrates the role of parents as advocates in case management processes while also illustrating the care required to ensure it is the voice of her son and his views, rather than her own, that dominate. She traces the fine line parents and case managers must tread between upholding a person's right to autonomy by ensuring their wishes and needs are met and that of prtoecting the individual from poor choices and harm. Importantly, too, she draws attention to the fear of retribution confronted by parents and other allies when they challenge or push a service system that potentially wields much power over the life of the person they seek to represent.