Treatment Planning and Case Management
What this domain tests
This domain covers individualized planning, measurable objectives, service coordination, and the paper and consent trail that lets a justice-linked plan survive court scrutiny. Questions test whether you can build a plan from assessment data rather than a program template, and whether you know what may be shared with courts.
Core rules
- A plan states the problem, the goal in the client's words, SMART objectives (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound), interventions, responsible staff, and review dates.
- The client is a co-author. Plans written for the client without participation predict early dropout.
- Case management functions: assessment, planning, linking/brokerage, monitoring, advocacy, and discharge planning. Coordinate medication continuity, housing, transport, and Medicaid/benefit reinstatement across jail release.
- Dosage and intensity follow risk level; step down as risk and stability change, and document why.
- 42 CFR Part 2 requires written consent naming the recipient, purpose, and expiration, plus the redisclosure prohibition, before any SUD record goes to probation or court.
- Progress notes are contemporaneous, behavioral, and quote the data (attendance, test results, objective attainment).
Worked example
A parolee in a 90-day outpatient program misses two groups and one urine test. The weak response is "noncompliant, recommend revocation." The defensible response: review the plan's objectives, document the missed contacts, screen for relapse and transportation barriers, adjust intensity, and report objective facts to the officer under a valid consent - not a sanction recommendation, which is the court's decision.
Traps
Template plans with unmeasurable goals ("will stay sober"); failing to review plans at stated intervals; assuming treatment consent equals consent to disclose; sharing full clinical narratives when a summary was authorized; ignoring release-date linkage needs.