when the file is called up due to unforeseen circumstances.
Yoges
For child protection work, and cases with risk, omission of critical information can
create risk situations for families and social workers. I also recall having to write
affidavits and being subpoenaed to court to give evidence and being crossexamined. Case notes are critical to demonstrate professional assessment by the
social worker and can even determine child outcomes.
Another reason why case notes are important is for the purpose of advocacy.
When I had to write social reports or letters to advocate for access to resources
for clients, the assessment in my case notes helped me enhance the quality of my
reports and put forth a professional document with clear evidence of needs and
gaps and impact on client of not having this resource.
Like what Jim Jim said, case notes also help in good case transfers between
workers and between agencies. At the end of the day, it is in the best interest of
the client who has walked through our doors.
Iris
I think case notes provide up-to-date information and assessment of the client
and his or her systems. Case workers can use the case notes to remind
themselves of the follow up plans and this can ensure a more targeted and
seamless intervention instead of being unfocused throughout the whole
intervention process. In cases of emergency when case worker is not around to
follow up with their client, it would be helpful for the covering staff to have the
up to date documentation. This will avoid any possible repetitions or unnecessary
questions which may further agitate the clients at times or cause more time
wastage.
Yoges
An important part of supervision is also to ensure that case recordings are done
and that workers don’t accumulate unrealistic numbers of backdated case
recordings.
I usually concretise and record my assessment of the case and also reflect on the
case and make forward plans.
You can refer to the Social Work Code of Ethics which talks about documentation.
[to include a sidebar on relevant code of ethics section]
Chey May
My opinion about documentation is that they are important for both
communication and follow up. If case notes are not updated, it is very time
wasting and thus would result in low service quality and people might complain.
This is not a severe risk but it is still a problem.
However, for some cases, the risk can be very severe depending on the incident,
for example, suicide and family violence.
In hospitals, we have an incidents reporting system but we cannot always rely on
it. I think training social workers to know what to write and when to write will be