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This article draws upon an extensive case management literature in order to integrate a number of key concepts and findings that must be considered by those responsible for the planning, administration, and provision of effective community care to the chronically mentally disabled. A discussion of the reasons for the current popularity of the case management concept within human services is followed by a detailed presentation of the objectives, ideology, functions, and structural elements that characterize case management systems. A series of practical problems and issues that must be addressed to effectively implement a case management system are then identified and analyzed. Finally, a set of recommendations for those developing case management systems is offered, and a number of important unanswered research questions about the delivery and impact of case management services are identified.

Two aspects of social support, availability and adequacy, were assessed for 729 severely mentally ill adults enrolled in seven state-supported Community Support Services (CSS) programs as part of repeated questionnaire surveys nine months apart. Perceived quality of life interviews with the clients were also conducted at both times. These interviews included the Bradburn Positive and Negative Affect Scales and the Satisfaction with Life Domains Scale (SLDS). Availability of social support was significantly correlated with positive affect over time, but not with negative affect at either point. Inadequacy of social support was significantly related to negative affect at both assessments. Both availability and adequacy of social support were significantly related to the SLDS at each time. Change in satisfaction with life domains was found to be related to both availability and, to a lesser degree, with adequacy of social support.

The results have demonstrated that for each of the age categories, problem-solving cognition is an adaptive thinking ability that successfully discriminates between groups that clearly differ in their level of demonstrated adjustment (e.g., impulsive adolescents at a residential school vs. normal high school controls; adult psychiatric patients vs. normal adult controls). While these studies have demonstrated that problem-solving cognition can discriminate between groups that differ grossly in their level of adjustment, there is evidence that this variable can also discriminate among persons in a homogeneous group who differ only in the degree of their social competence or effectiveness (Platt & Spivack, 1972b;Ziegler & Phillips, 1962). Thus, empirical

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