Working relationship is a corner stone of social work practice and its importance as a core factor for ideal outcomes has been emphasized. Especially, considering the characteristics of mental health service in which a case management is the framework...
Working relationship is a corner stone of social work practice and its importance as a core factor for ideal outcomes has been emphasized. Especially, considering the characteristics of mental health service in which a case management is the framework of the basic practice, the working relationship has a more important meaning. This study proved how the factors such as the individual factor of the self-efficiency of a person with mental disorders, the family factor of family support, and the service factor of service satisfaction, have an influence on working relationship. Through antecedents, this research presented a structural model with latent variables of self-efficiency, family support, service satisfaction, working relationship and rehabilitation outcomes, and proved the direct effect and mediated effect of the perception of a person with mental disorders of working relationship. In addition, the study proved that depending on how disparate the perception of their working relationship was, there existed a different path for the person with mental disorders and case manager. That is, the study proved that there are separate rehabilitation paths and outcomes depending on the perception difference level.
Therefore, 432 persons with mental disorders who use social rehabilitation facilities located in Seoul and 82 case managers were surveyed as research subjects in order to examine this structural model. SPSS 13.0 was used to analyse descriptive statistics on the data base and AMOS 5.0 was used to analyse and examine the structural equation modeling and the hypothesis.
Major findings in this study are as follows:
First, in the measurement model analysis, the variables related with the antecedents of the rehabilitation outcomes explain their construct validity very well. Sufficient fit index of research model has shown its reasonable fitness in the analysis of measurement model and structural model.
Second, in the direct effect analysis, the self-efficiency and working relationship perceived by a person with mental disorders have a significant level of influence on his/her rehabilitation outcomes. In addition, family support and service satisfaction have a statistically significant direct effect on the working relationship.
Third, in the working relationship mediated effect analysis, family support and service satisfaction have a mediated effect in the path to the rehabilitation outcomes through the mediator of the working relationship and stand at a statistically significant level. However, self-efficiency and rehabilitation outcomes in the path have no mediated effect.
Fourth, the multi-group analysis of two groups, one where the perception difference level of the working relationship between the person with mental disorders and the case manager was small and the other where the perception difference level was large, shows that the two groups distinctly differ on how the family support influences working relationship and how the working relationship influences rehabilitation outcomes.
Based on the above results, this research has the following implications:
First, this study draws its academic interest in mutual working variables including the working relationship with the case manager, since the working relationship influences a successful rehabilitation of a person with mental disorders, the final objective of mental health service. Moreover, in view of the recovery alliance theory, which uses the same conceptual tool as this study, the study shows a theoretical implication of the usefulness of working relationship.
Second, as for practical implications, the case manager should put intervention efforts as a top priority in constructing and developing a positive working relationship during the case-management process of mental health service. The mental health service must essentially include intervention to improve self-efficiency, which mostly influences rehabilitation outcomes, and utilize intervention strategy that considers mediate effect in working relationship. In other words, since it is difficult to establish a working relationship with a person with mental disorders who has a poor family support, it is important to secure family support through various family support interventions for the development of a positive working relationship with the case manager. In addition, various measurements should be found in order to improve service satisfaction, which influences positive working relationship. On the other hand, case managers should always sensitively appraise the working relationship with a person with mental disorders, and make proactive efforts to minimize the perception difference level of their working relationship. In order to firmly establish the effective community mental health service approaches in practical fields such as empowerment approach, recovery-oriented approach, and consumerism, the establishment of a positive working relationship and the improvement of the quality of the working relationship should be achieved as top priorities.
Third, as for policy implication, it is necessary to construct infrastructures in practical fields of mental health service in order to establish a positive working relationship. It is also necessary for the policy to assign an appropriate number of cases to each case manager, enforce supervision, and improve the case manager's working environment in order to prevent the exhaustion or high turn-over of case mangers. Theoretical and field training for working relationship should be emphasized in mental health professionals' training programs.
This study has the following meanings:
First, although working relationship had been raised as a core factor that influences rehabilitation outcomes in past researches and studies, it was never quantified. Thus, this research is significant for its empirical and practical analysis of the effects of a working relationship. The research also presents a quantitative analysis of individual and objective characteristics of a working relationship. Therefore, this approach and research result have a significant meaning in this area.
Second, this research studied major factors that affect rehabilitation outcomes of a person with mental disorders, developed and analysed study models, and found significant paths to rehabilitation outcomes. Especially, the research proved the mediate effect of a working relationship and found various influence relationships in working relationship by examining the differences between the two groups with distinct perception difference levels.
There are a few limitations to this research: working relationship, which is a process variable, was studied with a cross-sectional method. The research covered only working relationship perceived by a person with mental disorders even though mutual process of working relationship is crucial. Since random sampling was not used, the research results could not be generalized, which is another limitation. Finally, since this calculating tool was used for the first time in Korea, it needs more accurate and supplemental tools reflecting Korean cultural characteristics even though the tool was used after analysing its validity through pre-survey.