Stanley Smith Case Management is committed to delivering a first-rate service to clients while also protecting its team from burnout and the mental health struggles so regularly seen among healthcare workers. NR Times learns more about how its approach is helping it stand out in the field
From the earliest days of Stanley Smith Case Management, the business has focused on the link between offering a first-rate service to clients and ensuring staff are equipped with the support to deliver this.
While clients and their needs are at the centre of the service Stanley Smith offers, founders Heidi Stanley and Nikki Smith have been determined from the outset in August 2018 that it must not come at the expense of its case managers’ wellbeing.
“Many of the cases we work on are so complex and so emotionally challenging, it’s important that the case manager has boundaries,” says Heidi.
“So they can be effective in their role, and be most effective in their support to the client, we need to have the means to support them and retain their enthusiasm, while protecting them against burnout.”
Psychology-led support
While the provision of mentoring has been in place from the start, Stanley Smith’s commitment to its team has only increased over the past few months, as case management looks to the future after the huge challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The introduction of psychologist-led mentoring groups has been a valuable asset to Stanley Smith and its multi-disciplinary team, who specialise in highly complex cases, through being given the opportunity to share their experiences and offload in a supported environment, which then in turn enables them to give the best service possible to clients and families who depend on their support.
“We tend to work with really quite complex clients, which is very challenging. The role of the case manager is dealing with everything within their life, so the work and the responsibility is incessant. For a case manager, it can be all-consuming,” says Nikki.
“Through the sessions, which are facilitated by an extremely experienced psychologist, this gives a really safe space to be able to discuss cases, ideas, issues, and have the ability to hear other people’s views.
“This then gives us a different viewpoint, and gives a deep understanding into psycho-social effects that it could have on people.”
“We can talk about how it actually might affect us as people, in addition to what we’re doing as case managers,” says Heidi.
“Part of the boundaries we put in place are ensuring the case manager is not going over and over their cases all of the time, at the expense of them being able to switch off, and having the opportunity to share any concerns. It’s also really important that we reflect on the good work we do and give ourselves a pat on the back.
“As directors, our door is always open and our team can come to us at any point, but dedicating the time to have group sessions with a psychologist is very important.
“In that group environment, we can all discuss something that may be a sticking point or an issue and come up with different innovative ideas of dealing with whatever that challenge is. Because we’re a very experienced multi-disciplinary team, we can share our knowledge from different viewpoints, which can be very effective.”
Client-centred care
For Stanley Smith – recently shortlisted in the CMSUK Awards 2022 – this focus on the wellbeing of its team is central in the business being able to deliver the service for which it continues to build its reputation, with the client and their family at the centre of everything.
“Our ethos, and why we created the business, is that we put the client very much at the centre, and look at every case with a focus on quality, drive and compassion. We’re passionate about what we do and the support we give to clients and their families,” says Heidi.
The growing business, which covers the South West of England, regularly takes on clients who have previously and unsuccessfully been with a number of other case managers, and enables them to progress as never before.
“Our approach is that if we do it in the same way that everyone else does, then the outcome will be the same for the client and the relationship with the case manager will break down again – we have to do it differently,” says Nikki.
“When we have a new case, we plan with the case manager and look innovatively at the best approach to use to manage complex cases. This has included working closely with specialist support workers, who have a dual role of working with the client and the case manager and Stanley Smith team.
“We have also recently appointed a clinical support case manager to look at all of our cases when needed and cover existing case managers when they are off.”
Heidi continues: “We have to think intuitively and approach each case on its own unique circumstances and find the best way forward.
“We work closely as a team and value each other’s clinical backgrounds. Within the company, we’ve got OTs, physiotherapy, speech and language and nursing experience, and they all have extensive experience in what they do.
“I think we have developed a niche in highly complex work, which is why we are often referred cases which have been through a number of other case managers previously, but we have the motivated and capable team to be able to deliver the results others haven’t.”
And through the focus on the wellbeing of its team, Stanley Smith case managers are then able to support clients effectively in the most difficult of circumstances.
“I can think of one client case manager in particular, where she is managing a client to stop them hitting health and social crisis,” says Nikki.
“She’s holding a lot because the statutory services that should be involved, unfortunately, are stretched and not involved. But she’s doing such a good job and this client is in a safe place, which is thanks to her efforts.
“But against such pressure, as a team, we support each other and we can work through any issues and make sure she’s OK, so she can reflect on her good work and know she’s on the right track.”
Focus on quality
With a committed and motivated team, working to achieve the best possible outcomes for clients, Stanley Smith continues to develop its reputation for the quality of service it delivers.
“We’re really working hard on quality across the board for the provision of case management that we offer,” says Heidi.
“Clients are at the centre of everything and we continue to develop our knowledge base to move forward and be at the forefront of what we can do. We continue in our professional development to do the very best we can.
“The role of our new clinical support case manager is to look at quality, standards and outcome measures, and also to audit our work. It’s very important to ensure we have a consistent approach with not just the clients but also the carers.
“We are committed to delivering that high level of quality with a happy, collaborative team working together and really making a difference to people’s lives – that’s what it’s about.”
