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Social work case manager skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

5 min read

Quoted experts

Matt Grace,

Dr. Dianna Cooper

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical social work case manager skills. We ranked the top skills for social work case managers based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 37.9% of social work case manager resumes contained social work as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a social work case manager needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 social work case manager skills for your resume and career

2. Patients

Here's how social work case managers use patients:

Progressed through a series of responsibilities, culminating in responsibility for the coordination of transitional services for Hospital Rehabilitation Department patients.
Facilitated resource management by making appropriate referrals to community agencies that helped patients remain safe and independent in their home environment.

4. Discharge Planning

Here's how social work case managers use discharge planning:

Referred clients for community and facility based services; conducted discharge planning and residential placement as required.
Served as primary interface for insurance representatives regarding charges, progress, recommendations and discharge planning.

5. Acute Care

The branch of secondary healthcare which is responsible for giving short-term care to patients recovering from severe injuries or urgent medical problems is known as acute care. Acute care comprises multiple domains like; emergency care, urgent care, short-term stabilization, pre-hospital care, critical care, and trauma care.

Here's how social work case managers use acute care:

Provide ongoing case management within an acute care setting including resource-linking and referrals to appropriate community services at discharge.
Support emotional needs of patient/caregivers in acute care setting.

6. Patient Care

Patient care entails the diagnosis, recovery, and control of sickness as well as the maintenance of physical and emotional well-being through the use of healthcare providers' services. Patient care is described as services provided to patients by health practitioners or non-professionals under guidance.

Here's how social work case managers use patient care:

Worked via an interdisciplinary team structure to provide services appropriate to inpatient care as well as coordinating supportive services following hospitalization.
Developed policies and procedures to ensure quality care and efficient clinical operations across ambulatory and inpatient care settings.

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7. Psychosocial Assessments

Here's how social work case managers use psychosocial assessments:

Perform biopsychosocial assessments on an acute/orthopedic rehabilitation unit.
Completed psychosocial assessments of patients on a variety of units to determine patients discharge needs to facilitate timely discharge from hospital.

8. Home Health

Here's how social work case managers use home health:

Supervised homemakers, home health aides, personal care workers, and chore workers who provided services to the elderly.
Assist patient and families obtain appropriate alternative program when no longer suitable for Long Term Home Health Care Program.

9. MSW

Here's how social work case managers use msw:

Provided weekly individual supervision to MSW students and co-managed bi-weekly student training.
Organized and ran the first MSW student program at the community hospital.

10. Support Services

Support services are services that support the organization internally and are usually non-revenue generating. Examples include, IT, admin, HR, etc.

Here's how social work case managers use support services:

Facilitated support services through remedial education, counseling, case management and referral resources.
Assessed support services for cases involving crisis intervention and medical emergencies.

11. Rehabilitation

Here's how social work case managers use rehabilitation:

Lead recovery-oriented rehabilitation and psycho education groups to adults with severe and persistent mental illness in a day treatment program setting.
Responded to high volume telephone and walk-in inquiries regarding long-term placement, government entitlements, rehabilitation, and services provided.

12. Substance Abuse

Here's how social work case managers use substance abuse:

Developed individual and family treatment plan with counselors addressing mental health, substance abuse and education.
Provided substance abuse counseling and case management services for HIV positive homeless individuals.

13. Community Agencies

Community agencies stand for the organizations operated to provide human service in the community.

Here's how social work case managers use community agencies:

Developed and maintained professional relationships with families, community agencies, court systems and social service providers.
Administered bi-weekly case management counseling; collaborated extensively with parents, teachers, and community agencies.

14. Utilization Review

Another name for utilization review is utilization management. It is the process of ensuring that healthcare services are used in a suitable manner. Utilization review is a critical component of adding value to the health care system. Mostly, UR is carried out by healthcare insurance companies, but hospitals and other healthcare providers also perform the process. Utilization review has three types of assessment namely: concurrent, prospective, and retrospective.

Here's how social work case managers use utilization review:

Provided case management and utilization review to patients in various departments throughout the hospital.
Conducted utilization reviews with insurance carriers to validate and extend hospital stays.

15. Mental Health

Mental health is the state of wellbeing in which an individual can cope with the regular stresses and tensions of life, and can work productively without having any emotional or psychological breakdown. Mental health is essential for a person of any age and helps them make the right decisions in their life.

Here's how social work case managers use mental health:

Provide crisis intervention/management; generate referral to agencies and external mental health providers or other service providers.
Provision of ongoing culturally competent mental health outpatient services for Latina pregnant and parenting teens.

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What skills help Social Work Case Managers find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on social work case manager resumes?

Matt Grace

Assistant Professor, Hamilton College

I have never been in a position to hire, but I do think there are some skills that all employers value. Foremost are oral and written communication skills. Regardless of the specifics of a job, chances are that you'll need to know how to effectively convey information, whether that's in the form of a presentation, a report, or even an email. Having worked in an office job prior to entering academia, I can't tell you how many of my co-workers were unable to craft a simple, coherent e-mail. This might seem trivial, but e-mail miscommunication can slow down a project or lead to internal tensions on a team. Second, while many higher education institutions are pushing students to learn to code, I think data literacy is just as important. The ability to distill trends and tell a story from data are vital skills for any company seeking to connect with the public.

What soft skills should all social work case managers possess?

Dr. Dianna Cooper

Associate Professor, Campbellsville University

The "change theory" used in social work practice follows several steps, including engaging, assessing, planning, intervening, evaluating, terminating, and following up. Soft skills are most likely to occur in engagement, intervention, and termination. Social workers are trained to "start wherever the client is," understanding that clients can be individuals, families, groups, communities, or organizations. Social workers are trained to respect the client as the expert in their needs, honor self-determination, use a strengths-based approach, and respect difference while using inclusion. The training turns into soft skills such as being empathetic, warm, genuine, and respectful. Social workers also develop skills in knowing when to listen and when to nudge the client toward action. Social workers are trained to intervene and, when change is completed, to terminate. Helping clients know when to end services also requires soft skills of talking about hard topics, seeing a brighter future and setting goals, recognizing when change is happening, and saying goodbye respectfully.

What hard/technical skills are most important for social work case managers?

Dr. Dianna Cooper

Associate Professor, Campbellsville University

Hard or technical skills are most likely to occur in the stages of assessing, planning, intervening, and evaluating change theory. Social workers are trained to gather lots of information and then analyze strengths and needs. Social workers present their assessments to clients and work together to create goals and the steps that reach goals when executed. The process involves using the client's vision of what "better" looks like. Social workers then use evidence-based techniques to move the client toward the goal and define measures to know when the goal is met. The technical skills used in this process include analyzing many types of information repeatedly, knowing what resources exist and how to refer, knowing how to design effective goals and steps to achieve goals, researching current evidence-based practices, defining and measuring progress, and setting limits and timeframes.

What social work case manager skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Lillian Wichinsky Ph.D.

Associate Dean, University of Nevada - Reno

The need for social workers with expertise in mental health care, school-based social work, health and substance misuse are particularly important. Sixty percent of mental health care in the US is provided by social workers and the need is growing.

What type of skills will young social work case managers need?

Samantha Fletcher Ph.D.

Executive Director, National Association of Social Workers, New York State

The core skills of social work do not change over time. These skills include empathy, active listening, critical thinking, assessment, intervention, evaluation, advocacy, policy analysis, and adaptability. Social workers also need to evaluate the organizations they work in to assess for oppressive practices and policies. One of the profession's core values is social justice, which directs social workers to "pursue social change, particularly with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals and groups of people. Social workers' social change efforts are focused primarily on issues of poverty, unemployment, discrimination, and other forms of social injustice" (National Association of Social Workers, 2017). As a profession, social workers aim to dismantle racist, sexist, heterosexist, xenophobic, ableist, classist, and religiously biased systems and structures.

What technical skills for a social work case manager stand out to employers?

William Weston

Professor, Centre College

The ability to write clearly and think critically. The deep sense that other people in other cultures, and other positions in our own culture, see the world differently, enabling students to respond to a broad range of people appropriately.

Do you want to know more?

List of social work case manager skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a social work case manager resume and required skills for a social work case manager to have include:

Social Work
Patients
Social Services
Discharge Planning
Acute Care
Patient Care
Psychosocial Assessments
Home Health
MSW
Support Services
Rehabilitation
Substance Abuse
Community Agencies
Utilization Review
Mental Health
Service Delivery

Foster Care
Emotional Support
Financial Assistance
Child Abuse
Team Work
Medical Care
Community Resources
Crisis Intervention
Community Services
Group Therapy
SNF
Domestic Violence
Family Therapy
Mental Illness
Law Enforcement
Government Agencies

Independent Living
Durable Medical Equipment
CPS
Child Care
Narrative Reports
MDS
Protective Services
ICU
Court Reports
Veterans
Developmental Disabilities
Social Security
Community Referrals
Foster Children

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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