Imagine that one of your colleagues has recently resigned and you have taken over their caseloads. You have just started working with this client, Helen, a 32-year-old mother with alcohol dependency and mental health issues (anxiety and depression). Helen's 8-year-old daughter, Bella, is currently in the care of the Department of Child Safety under a "Short-term Custody Order". This order means that while Helen's daughter is currently in need of protection and has been placed in the care of a foster carer, but the goal of the case plan is for this family to be reunified. Child Safety has advised that reunification is not possible until such time that Helen proves that she is no longer drinking, finds some stability in her mental health, and has secured stable accommodation. Helen has expressed a commitment to meeting the requirements put forward by the Department in order to facilitate contact with her daughter. Her entire case management plan has been based on the requirements for reunification. Your old colleague had referred Helen to a homelessness support program called Horizon Housing and she has recently obtained long-term accommodation. She is also currently working with both a mental health support worker and an alcohol and other drugs counsellor. Helen has been engaging with both services; however, she is still drinking excessively.

During your first meeting with Helen, she expressed some confusion regarding the work she is required to complete with these services and the Department of Child Safety's requirements for reunification with her daughter. You know from conversations that any delay in the unification process may lead to setbacks in Helen's progress. Upon reviewing Helen's file, you also noticed a lack of clarity regarding this outcome criteria as well as a seeming lack of clarity among stakeholders regarding individual roles and responsibilities in working with Helen. Particularly, there is a double-up of counselling services, no communication between service providers, and each service has made decisions about Helen's case without consulting the others. Additionally, Helen's case has been recently assigned to a new Child Safety Officer and this worker appears to have made some amendments to the reunification plan that have not been updated to Helen's plan.

With Helen's consent, you have decided to plan and facilitate a case management meeting to help clarify the boundaries and processes to be involved in supporting Helen. This meeting will include Helen, her mental health support worker, her alcohol and other drugs (AOD) counsellor, and her new Child Safety Officer (from the Department of Child Safety).

C - How do the consideration and requirements in the previous question affect the approach you will take in working with Helen?

E - One of the main agenda items discussed at the meeting is the double up of counselling services for Helen. Helen has been attending counselling with both mental health support worker and the AOD counsellor. From Helen's perspective she didn't seem to understand why she needs to see two counsellors and feels like she was repeating herself a lot of times. As the case manager, what steps would you take in the meeting to help relevant stakeholders identify and agree on their roles and boundaries of service delivery.