Traditional Case Management (as compared with Integrated Case Management)

The Traditional Case Management program provided case management to single-parent Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) applicants and recipients to help them improve educational and vocational skills in preparation for securing a job. This evaluation directly compared Traditional Case Management to a separate intervention, Integrated Case Management, in order to better understand which of the two interventions might be more effective. The distinctive feature of Traditional Case Management was the assignment of separate case managers for employment services and welfare services. 

Traditional Case Management participants worked with one case manager to improve educational and vocational skills and with a separate income maintenance case manager to determine their welfare eligibility and payment issuance. Participants who did not have a high school diploma or GED were assigned to basic education classes; participants with basic education credentials were assigned to vocational training, postsecondary education, or work experience. Case managers provided job search assistance after they determined that participants were employable. Supportive services offered included  child care, transportation, and other incidental work costs, and the program had an on-site child care center. Case managers monitored and enforced program participation and imposed sanctions on participants who did not meet the program participation requirements by reducing their monthly welfare payments. Services ended when clients exited AFDC. Participants in Traditional Case Management were single-parent AFDC applicants and recipients whose youngest child was at least 3 years old. The intervention was implemented in Columbus, OH, and was mandatory for all participants as part of the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training welfare-to-work program, unless they met one of several exclusion criteria. 

The effectiveness of Traditional Case Management when compared with the effectiveness of Integrated Case Management indicates the effect of being referred to a set of services that includes those unique to Traditional Case Management; the comparison indicates how much better the offer of Traditional Case Management met participants’ needs than the offer of Integrated Case Management. While participants in Traditional Case Management worked with separate case managers, participants in Integrated Case Management worked with a single case manager to improve their educational and vocational skills and determine their welfare eligibility and payment issuance. Integrated Case Management case managers also worked with fewer cases than case managers in the Traditional Case Management program did and were therefore able to provide more personalized attention and careful monitoring. Case managers in the Traditional Case Management program had larger caseloads and did not monitor participation as closely.