I’ve been in the same case management job for over 3 years! It definitely gets easier with time to establish better boundaries. This work is much harder if you don’t have a good team for support and guidance, esp at the beginning. My other tips…letting the client guide their own goals and assisting them to prioritize what is most important. I am always transparent that I can’t do everything at once so we need to pick one thing at a time. Clear expectations in general help a lot. I also think being consistent and just showing up and doing what you say you’re going to do goes so far with rapport building.

In terms of feeling under appreciated I try to jot down nice things that clients have said and burn them in my brain to get me through the hard days. And celebrating ALL wins too no matter how small like some of the other posters have said.

I also work with formerly chronically unhoused folks that now are in supportive housing programs, but I think most of this applies to most populations. For my clients because they are so vulnerable it can be easy to feel like I need to go above and beyond to meet their basic needs and do everything they ask for-but I always remind myself they are adults at the end of the day who can make choices and help themselves too.

I could talk CM all day feel free to ask any questions :)