Do You Need a Degree to Be a Case Manager?

Following up on the recent article on ICL (a large non-profit in NYC recently in the news) I figured it was a good idea to discuss case manager jobs again. These jobs are not in the professional sector, but recruiters across the country often work on them.

Unlike professional sector jobs such as account executives, analysts, public relations, and compliance roles, non-profit case manager roles fall within the non-profit job sector. The non-profit job list is only going to be dwarfed by the government sector.

The sheer number of these roles, and the quick turnover that happens in the non-profit sector is the reason why recruiters work are enlisted to assist with finding qualified workers.

The job prospects for someone graduating with a degree in criminal justice, social work, or a related field is excellent when compared to a more traditional liberal arts degree. Simply put, the non-profit world is not reliant on the economy for it’s ability to exist they have extensive funding mechanisms in place that provide for grants and government funding streams.

The question arises, do you need a degree to be a case manager? Is this is a job where you need to have a specific college degree in order to find work?

The quick answer is yes. You need some sort of degree. That might be an associate’s degree, or it might be a bachelor’s degree. There are some instances where you will be able to find a job working as a case manager with only a high school degree, but those are rare.

What we’re going to do here is review some of the finer points related to case manager jobs and what exactly they entail as far as degrees.

What Type of Case Manager Job Are You Applying For?

The determining factor in whether nor not you need a college degree to work as a case manager comes down to the type of job you are applying for. There are some case manager jobs where you will need a degree, in fact most of the case manager roles do require at least an associates degree if not a bachelors degree.

The reason why so many of the case manager jobs require a person to have a bachelors degree is that most case manager roles are with non-profits that are funded by government grants and other funding mechanisms.

If you are applying for a case manager role at any of the large non-profits, then it’s very likely that the organization is receiving hundreds of millions from the government. These funding grants will come with requirements that require a certain number of bachelor level employees.

Also, due to how easy it is to obtain a degree in human services from local state and city colleges, it is a huge red flag on a resume if someone does not have a degree. The role of a case manager does not require someone to have great grades, high test scores, or anything else in the academic realm. Instead, what is required is that they understand bureaucratic processes that are involved in the government funded non-profit world.

For instance, someone who is going to be a case manager in a social service agency that finds unemployed people housing for free does not need to have a bachelors degree. However, it’s always preferable because it shows that the person was motivated enough to have applied to a local college that offered the degree in a social service field.

More advanced case manager roles, such as those that require dealing with the court system or handling psycho-social issues, it is almost always required that the person have a bachelors degree along with experience in the form of internships and other beneficial experiences that one would have gotten in college.

Understanding The Case Manager Job Role

The case manager role is one of the more vague jobs that you will find online. There are quite a few jobs out there that you will find advertised on Indeed or another site that are called case managers.

A homeless shelter in Brooklyn of Las Vegas might have a ad online for a case manager for their overnight shift. Those roles will often not require a bachelors degree. Those roles will often be simply an intake role: it’s essentially a general check in point.

Then there might be a case manager to watch over a case load of geriatrics who are living in private care and who are receiving medical treatment. These case managers will be required to have a bachelor’s degree in human services due to the autonomy of the role and the increased responsibilities.

The job of a case manager is to watch over and care for people who are unable to take care of their own issues. This might include:

• A case manager who will sign people up for social welfare benefits
• A case manager who will sign someone up for government paid housing
• Case managers who handle family affairs for parents who are unable to care for their children
• Care management for elderly who have no children and are suffering from age related conditions
• Medical case managers for people on Medicaid
• Welfare management for families who do not work
• Domestic assistant for newly arrived immigrants

Experience vs Degree For Case Manager Jobs

The truth is that there are many types of jobs in the case management world that should not require a degree, but which technically do.

What does that mean? Well, it means that someone who has worked in the shelter system handling intake for many years is obviously more qualified than a new graduates. However, it’s not that simple in the non-profit world.

The fact is that non-profits are able to hire a lot of people thanks to government funding. The other fact is that many of these roles are straight forward temporary or contract roles that are only going to provide funding for a short time (sometimes 3 months, sometimes 12 months).

If you are looking for work as a case manager, then it’s important that you have experience working with a non-profit, social service agency, or government. If you don’t have this sort of experience—often in the form of an internships—then you will have a hard time finding a job.

The truth is that case manger jobs entail dealing with unpleasant aspects of society: courts, bureaucracies, and many other processes that are not attractive to people. This is why many people quit case manager jobs soon after starting them. It’s a difficult job, no matter the field, which is why most companies that hire case managers want to make sure that the people they hire know what they are getting into.

Backdoor In with a Case Assistant Role

One method of getting a case manager job if you don’t have the right experience or if you don’t have a bachelors degree is to find a case assistant role. These jobs are not as involved as a case manager job, and therefore you can find them easier if you’re not someone with a college degree.

There are many companies that advertise case assistant roles online. You can find them everywhere from Craigslist to Indeed to Idealist. The jobs are all the same and are all in support of case managers.

A case assistant might be responsible for greating people who enter a homeless facility. They might be required to fill out forms for people who are applying for government benefits. Some case assistants are involved in helping people find items such as their home address and social security cards.

The case assistant helps people looking for public benefits get the documents ready so that they can qualify for the assistance.

Other case assistants might do things such as help hand out lunch at free lunch programs, or supervise children who are attending a free after school program.

The case assistant role is something that will often only require a high school degree. In many cities, youth employment agencies that are run by the government often pay for teenagers to work as case assistants and help in youth programs.

There are tons of options out there for anyone who is persistent enough.

The advantage to getting a case assistant job as opposed to going right for the case manager jobs is that you’ll be able to find more openings that accept someone without a college degree.

Associates Degree vs Bachelor Degree for Case Manager Jobs

It’s better to have a bachelor’s degree when you are looking to get into a case manager job. However, even if you only have an associate’s degree it might be possible to find a job working as a case manager.

This might not be true if you’re living in a remote area or in a suburban area. But if you are looking for work in a large urban city like LA or NYC, where millions of people are involved in the non-profit and government funded programs.

Case managers in large urban cities like NYC and Chicago provide health and mental wellness services, sign people up for EBT and other food benefit programs, housing programs to provide rental assistance for those who choose to or cannot work, and legal aid and assistance for new immigrants who are not documented and need to have assistance with food, emergency cash programs, and housing.

Examples of Case Manager Jobs And Where to Find Them

Not all case managers do the same sort of work. I briefly covered this before in this article on what a case manager does in social work. But here are some more detailed and specific examples.

MICA Case Manager

These case managers make sure that their clients are able to receive money and housing and treatment. The people that these case managers work with are Mentally Ill, Chemically Addicted persons. They often have multiple mental illness disorders and take drugs. Case managers make sure that their bills are paid and they are signed up for benefits programs and relief programs.

Housing Case Manager

Housing case managers work with people who are in need of housing. This might be a young woman who has children and wants to have her own apartment. Or it might be a teenager who has turned 18 and is seeking to leave their parents home and is already in a vulnerable population (MICA, Preventative care, LBGTQ). Housing case managers make sure that landlords are paid and the government funded programs are kept track of so that the clients can restfully proceed with their plan of care without having to worry about rent or dealing with landlords or property management firms.

Adult Health Case Manager

This is a general case manager who deals with adults on Medicaid who might also be long term unemployed and are in need to medical assistance of health care. The case manager would oversee the persons complete care plan and arrange for them to go to the doctor, often times making sure car service is on hand to take them to and from the doctors office.

Adolescent Case Manager

The case manager who works with adolescents is going to be responsible for making sure that children are going to school and will try and prevent the parents from losing custody of their children. Many children who have case managers are in unstable housing situations where the parents are long term unemployed, or suffer from MICA, or drug related problems. The job of the case manager is to make sure the child is cared for and is taken to protective custody if needed.

Preventative Housing Case Manager

These are case managers who try and prevent people from losing their housing. An example of the case manager work might be as follows: a person resides in a apartment where the landlord is being paid through a city funded voucher program. After 18 months, the city will cease paying the voucher. At that point the landlord will demand rent and begin eviction processes.

The resident who is in a job training program and unable to work cannot pay the landlord. The case manager will therefore look for alternative voucher programs and re-enlist the person in a housing list to make sure that they do not lose their housing due to the inability to pay rent.

The goal here is to prevent the individual from entering the shelter system.

Some of the non-profit organizations that hire case managers are listed below. You can find more about them by reading online. The jobs might be posted on Indeed, LinkedIn, or even Craigslist.

• CUCS
• CAMBA
• Jericho Project
• Glide Housing
• Alpha Project
• Exdous Recovery
• Heluna Health
• Jewish and Family Services San Diego
• Baily House