A Study on the Revision of the Standard Guidelines for Case Management Practice

This study aimed to revise the Standard Guidelines for Case Management Practice (2016) in response to shifts in the practice environment and evolving demands for professionalism in community-based social welfare services. The research process incorporated multiple stages: expert consultations, a review of relevant literature, three rounds of Delphi surveys, a post-Delphi field survey, and a validation session. Twenty-five case management experts from both academia and the field contributed to the Delphi process. In the first round, open-ended responses were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The second and third rounds assessed agreement on structured items using a five-point scale, and the Content Validity Ratio (CVR) was applied to determine item inclusion. A follow-up survey of 105 practitioners was conducted at the annual conference of the Korea Academy of Case Management to gauge field consensus. As a result, the revised guidelines include 7 items under a utilization guide and 32 items under practice standards. These revised guidelines are expected to serve as a foundational framework to enhance the quality, consistency, and professionalism of case management practice.