Introduction

The social services world and the high tech world are two very different worlds: a point I cannot underscore enough. These two worlds are presently on a collision course and in many areas have begun merging. These worlds are as different as “XML” is to a “food bank”. Sure they may relate, but not without some serious negotiation.

The drive for adoption of technologies in the social services world and the evolution of healthcare technologies in the primary healthcare care sector are beginning to cause a convergence of care that is fundamentally changing the way healthcare is delivered and thought about.

The traditional model of biological health is evolving beyond clinical healthcare to include the social determinants of health (SDOH). This is tying the future of social services and the future of primary healthcare together. I will call this new and still evolving health model, the C3 Health Model after Convergence, Community and Code, the three factors I see driving this trend.

It’s no secret that information technology is becoming ubiquitous and the future of most organizations will be dependent on technologies to inform, manage, perform, communicate and report their activities.

My explorations in this blog will focus primarily on how case management practices and technologies that aid this multi-service method of care are shaping the future. We will come to see how case management technologies may assist social services and primary healthcare providers to work collaboratively to increase their capacities and provide more help to more people and in the process change the very nature of health services.