Case Management Questions to Ask Clients
Case management and social work questions to ask clients at an intake, assessment or review, worded so a client can answer them without knowing the system's vocabulary. They start with what is urgent this week and how the client wants to be worked with, then cover daily life (housing, money, food, transport, paperwork), health and safety, the people and strengths the client already has, and the plan itself, and they finish with what to ask at every meeting after the first. Staff at a shelter or a transitional housing program will find the questions for their residents in the same groups: the last address, the house rules, the housing lists and the move out. The whole list sits beside your agency's own forms and risk procedures, not in place of them.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Opening
What brings you in today?
Why ask it
Put it in those words, not in terms of services or referrals, and let the answer run without steering it. What a client raises first is not always the largest problem, but it is the one they are ready to work on, so write it down in their phrasing and come back to it when you set goals.
Before we go through anything else, is there something that has to be dealt with this week?
Why ask it
This catches the eviction notice, the court date, the empty cupboard and the prescription that runs out on Friday. Assessment can wait an hour, and a client who leaves an intake with one urgent thing handled has a reason to come back.
What were you told about what we do here?
Why ask it
Referred clients often arrive carrying a promise somebody else made on your behalf: an apartment, a grant, a place on a program. Hear the expectation before you describe the service, then correct it kindly and at once, because a client who finds out in week three feels misled by you and not by the referrer.
What have you already tried, and how did it go?
Why ask it
Most people have been working on the problem for months before they reach you, and the answer saves you from proposing the call they made in March. It also shows where things stuck: a form, a waiting list, a person who never called back.
What does an ordinary week look like for you right now?
Why ask it
Go through it day by day, because the general answer misses the practical detail: appointments clustered on one day, no bus after six, a shift pattern that makes mornings impossible. Plans tend to come apart over details like these long before anyone questions the goals.
Is there anything you would rather not talk about today?
Why ask it
Offering the exit before anyone needs it makes the harder questions easier to ask later. Write the subject down as parked, not skipped, say you may come back to it at another meeting, and check whether a required field on your form falls inside it.
Is there anything about your language, faith or family I should know so I get this right?
Why ask it
A name or an appearance tells you nothing reliable, so let the client say what matters: a prayer time that rules out Friday appointments, food a pantry box has to respect, an elder who is consulted on every decision. If an interpreter is needed, book one through your agency and do not lean on a relative, above all when safety might come up.
How do you like to get information: on paper, by text, or talked through?
Why ask it
It is a respectful way to learn about reading, eyesight and memory without asking anyone to admit a difficulty. If the answer is talked through, stop sending letters and expecting them to be acted on, and with the client's consent pass the preference on to the other agencies involved.
Daily life
Where are you staying at the moment?
Why ask it
Staying is an easier word than housing status, because nobody has to put themselves in a category to answer. Listen for temporary arrangements described as settled, such as a friend's sofa or a room paid for in cash, since many programs treat those differently from a lease and each has its own definition.
How long can you stay there, and what would end it?
Why ask it
An address is only half of the housing picture. A lease, a verbal arrangement and a friend's patience all run out differently, and the answer tells you whether housing is this month's work or simply a fact to note.
Who else lives there with you?
Why ask it
Who counts as part of the household decides a good deal about benefits and housing options, and the rules differ from one program to the next. Take names, ages and relationships once, carefully, so the client is not asked again by every service, and notice anyone who is described as coming and going.
Where were you living before this, and what brought that to an end?
Why ask it
At a shelter or transitional housing intake, this answer shapes the exit plan more than any other, because whatever ended the last home (a rent rise, a break-up, a landlord selling up) may be waiting at the next one. Take it down as history and not as fault, and note any address or area the client cannot go back to.
Which of the house rules do you expect to be hardest to live with?
Why ask it
One for clients in transitional housing, a shelter or a sober house, where a curfew, a visitor rule or a savings requirement comes with the bed. Asked in the first week, it brings the clash into the open before it turns into a written warning: the shift that ends after curfew, the child who visits on Sundays. If an exception is possible, find out who decides it and tell the client the answer either way.
Which housing lists or applications are you on, and when did you last hear from each one?
Why ask it
A waiting list can drop someone who misses an update letter or changes phone number, so a client who has moved three times this year may be off a list they believe they are on. Write each one down with its reference number, then check together how that list expects to be kept up to date.
How are you managing for money at the moment?
Why ask it
Hold the request for a figure until later. First find out which bills are covered and which are not, then ask about rent arrears, money owed to relatives and any debt where somebody is threatening court or collection.
Is anything still owed to a past landlord or a utility company, or is there an eviction on your record?
Why ask it
Old arrears and an eviction filing can sink a rental application months from now, so it is kinder to hear about them while there is still time to act. What a landlord may check, and how long a record counts, varies by place, so take that part to a local housing advice service and do not answer it from memory.
Which benefits or programs are you getting, and is anything still pending?
Why ask it
Pending applications matter as much as current income, since a delayed decision is often the immediate cause of the crisis. Ask to see any letters, because dates and reference numbers get remembered wrongly, and the time allowed to challenge a decision depends on the program and can be short.
Are you working at the moment, paid or unpaid?
Why ask it
Adding unpaid brings in the cash jobs, the caring and the volunteering that a question about employment leaves out. Find out how many hours and how steady they are before you book anything, and where earnings affect a benefit, check how that program treats them instead of guessing.
Are you in school or any kind of training, or was there a course you had to stop?
Why ask it
The stopped course is the half worth following up, because the reason is usually practical (fees, childcare, a move) and sometimes fixable. Where study changes a benefit or a work requirement, look up that program's rules before you encourage anyone to enroll.
Was there enough food in the house this week?
Why ask it
A question about one week is easier to answer honestly than a question about going hungry. Parents will often say the children ate, so ask who went without. If the answer is no, a food referral belongs in today's work, not in the plan.
Is there mail at home that you have not been able to face opening?
Why ask it
Unopened envelopes are where deadlines hide, and plenty of people who otherwise cope have a drawer of them. Offer to go through the pile together next time, sorting it into urgent, can wait and can be thrown away, without a word about how long it has sat there.
Do you have any court dates, hearings or legal deadlines coming up?
Why ask it
A hearing date is set by somebody else, so it goes into the plan first and everything else is arranged around it. Your part is to record the date and find out whether the client has a lawyer or an advice service, for immigration paperwork as much as for court, and not to interpret the documents yourself.
How do you get to appointments?
Why ask it
Two buses and ninety minutes each way is a different appointment from a ten-minute walk. Find out how long the trip takes and what it costs, then book around the answer, and check whether your agency has bus passes or ride vouchers before the first no-show, not after it.
Do you have your ID and the other papers people keep asking you for?
Why ask it
A missing birth certificate, photo ID or proof of address can stall an application that is otherwise ready to go. List what is missing, find out what each replacement costs and how long it takes where you are, and start the slowest one first.
Do you have a phone that works and a way to get online?
Why ask it
So much is now applied for through a portal that no data, a cracked screen or a shared handset becomes a barrier in its own right. If a library computer is the only access, plan to do the online forms together in your office.
Health and safety
Do you have a doctor or clinic you go to, and is the care working for you?
Why ask it
You are looking for gaps, and for care the client has quietly dropped out of because of cost, distance or a card that lapsed. Where care depends on insurance or registration, ask whether it is still active, and write down who is already treating them so that your plan fits around theirs.
Are you taking any medication, and can you get hold of it when you need it?
Why ask it
The second half is the working part: cost, distance to the pharmacy, a refill that needs an appointment nobody can get. If they have stopped taking something, ask what got in the way and leave any advice about restarting to whoever prescribed it.
Is there anything you find hard to do day to day, such as stairs, cooking, washing or filling in forms?
Why ask it
People under-report this, partly from pride and partly because they have adapted so well that they no longer notice. A concrete list works better than asking about disability, and what you hear may point to an assessment or to equipment, depending on what your area provides.
How have you been sleeping lately?
Why ask it
Sleep is one of the least loaded ways into how someone is really doing, and almost everyone will answer it. Three hours a night on a friend's sofa also explains missed mornings better than any note about motivation.
How has your mood been over the last couple of weeks?
Why ask it
The time frame makes it a factual question and stops it sounding like a judgment. You are not there to diagnose. You are deciding whether to offer a referral, and whether the plan you are about to write asks more than this person has to give this month.
Does alcohol or anything else play a part in how things are going at the moment?
Why ask it
Say first that you put this to everyone, and use the same voice as you did for the question about transport. What you need is the practical effect on money, housing and appointments, plus whether they want help with it, and a client who expects a lecture will tell you none of that.
Is there anything about where you are living, or who you are living with, that does not feel safe?
Why ask it
Raise it only when the two of you are alone, and know beforehand what your agency expects you to do with a yes. Some clients disclose at once and others test you first with something small, so a no today is worth asking about again at a later meeting.
Have things ever felt bad enough that you thought about hurting yourself?
Why ask it
If your agency has a screening tool for this, use its wording in place of this one. Either way, know before you ask exactly what you are expected to do with a yes, including who you call and what gets recorded, and follow that procedure instead of improvising.
Support and strengths
Who can you call when something goes wrong?
Why ask it
More useful than asking whether someone has a support system, a phrase that invites a yes. A specific name and a working phone number is a resource, and nobody at all is an assessment finding that should change your plan.
How are the people who depend on you doing right now?
Why ask it
Children, a parent with dementia, a partner who is unwell: their needs set the limit on what your client can take on. Notice a child missing school or an adult left alone for long stretches, and say plainly, before the client goes further, what your role would require you to report where you work.
Is anyone you would normally live with staying somewhere else right now, such as a child, a partner or a pet?
Why ask it
Some shelters and transitional housing programs take only one kind of household, so families can arrive split: a teenage son at an aunt's, a partner in another program, a dog with a neighbor. Whoever was left elsewhere is often the reason a client turns down a bed or leaves one early, so write getting the household back under one roof into the plan as a goal with its own steps.
Who else is working with you right now, and do they know about each other?
Why ask it
Three agencies each running a separate plan is how a client ends up with a calendar full of appointments and no progress. Get names and roles, then ask which worker the client actually trusts, because that is the person to coordinate with once you have consent.
Which services have you dealt with before, and how did they treat you?
Why ask it
A client who describes being passed between agencies is explaining, in advance, why they may not answer your calls. Ask what one thing should be different this time and change it where they can see it, even if it is only who phones whom.
What has helped in the past that you no longer have?
Why ask it
A sister who moved away, a worker who left, a club that closed, a car. Lost supports are usually easier to restore or replace than new ones are to invent, and the answer shows what kind of help this person actually uses.
What do you do to get through a bad day?
Why ask it
Everyone has something: a walk, a prayer, a sister on the phone, shutting the door and sleeping. Take the answer without ranking it, because it shows what the client reaches for under pressure, and a plan that removes it without putting anything in its place is unlikely to hold.
What is going well at the moment that we should leave alone?
Why ask it
Case plans have a tendency to reorganize a life that is partly working. Naming the parts that hold, a job, a routine, a relationship, protects them and tells you what the client is drawing on.
What are you good at, or what do other people ask you for help with?
Why ask it
The second half rescues the people who answer 'nothing' to the first: they fix cars, braid hair, translate for the neighbors, keep three children fed on very little. Write the answer into the plan as something to use, and notice how the room changes after half an hour spent listing problems.
Goals and plan
Who may I speak to on your behalf, and what should I not share with them?
Why ask it
Consent has limits and clients often have specific ones: a landlord who may be told about a payment plan but not a diagnosis, a parent who may not be told anything. Record the limits in their words on the consent form your agency uses, and explain plainly what you are obliged to pass on regardless.
Six months from now, what would have to be different for you to say this helped?
Why ask it
Push gently for something you could both see: the rent paid, the children back in school, the same bed every night. If the answer is beyond what your service can do, say so now and name who might be able to, so the hope is pointed somewhere and not simply let down.
What kind of place do you want to move on to, and where?
Why ask it
Get the particulars: near the children's school, on a bus route to work, ground floor, anywhere but the neighborhood they left. A client in transitional housing is searching against a move-out date, so sort the list into what cannot bend and what can before the first viewing, not after the third refusal.
What would have to be in place before you could sign a lease?
Why ask it
Clients usually know the gap already: a deposit, a steady pay slip, photo ID, a reference, a debt cleared. Turn each item into a step with a date beside it. Where a deposit grant or a voucher might cover part of it, find out what is offered locally and who qualifies before you raise it as a possibility.
Which part of this do you want to start with?
Why ask it
Their first choice is often not the one you would rank first: the phone bill before the arrears, the dog's vet visit before their own check-up. Unless something is dangerous or has a deadline, start where they point, because progress on their priority is what earns a hearing for yours.
What is most likely to get in the way?
Why ask it
People usually know what trips them up, and will say so if they are asked before the plan is written and not after it fails. Build the answer in as a step of its own, whether it is childcare on Thursdays, a phone that keeps getting cut off or an ex-partner who lives near the office.
What is one thing you would be willing to do in the next week?
Why ask it
Keep it small enough to be sure of: one phone call, one form, one appointment kept. Let the client pick it and say it in their own words, since a task handed over by a worker is easy to agree to in the room and easy to drop by Wednesday.
On a scale of one to ten, how sure are you that you can do that?
Why ask it
A low number says the step is too big, and it is far cheaper to hear that now. Ask what would move it up by one, then shrink the task until the number rises. A three said out loud today is more use than a missed task next week.
What do you need from me before we meet again?
Why ask it
A plan in which only the client has tasks reads as a test. Name what you will do and by when, keep it to what you can deliver, and write it on the same sheet as their action so you both leave holding the same list.
How often should we speak, and what is the best way to reach you?
Why ask it
The safe way matters as much as the best way: whether you may leave a voicemail, whether the phone is shared, whether an envelope with your agency's name on it would cause trouble at home. Agree who contacts whom and on which day, then keep to it exactly.
If I cannot get hold of you, what would you like me to do?
Why ask it
Agreeing this while things are calm turns a later silence into a plan and not a closed case. Some clients name a sister to call, others want a text and never a voicemail. Either way, say at what point your agency's rules would have you close the file.
What have I missed that you expected me to ask about?
Why ask it
Intake forms are built around what agencies fund, and the thing weighing most on a client can fall between the boxes: a pet that cannot go to the shelter, a debt to a relative, a hearing next month. Leave a real pause after asking, because the first answer is usually no.
Review
What has changed since we last spoke?
Why ask it
Open every follow-up with it, before you look at the plan. A new job, a partner moving in or a benefit decision can change eligibility as well as priorities, and it is better heard from the client now than found in a letter later.
How did it go with the thing you said you would do?
Why ask it
Name the task itself when you ask, the call to the landlord or the form for the school, in the voice you would use about the weather. If it did not happen, find out what got in the way and make the next step smaller, because a second missed task tends to end with the client avoiding you.
Did I do what I said I would?
Why ask it
Put your own task on the table before the client has to raise it. If you did not manage it, say so plainly, give the new date, and resist explaining your caseload, which sounds to a client like a reason to expect the same again.
What has been useful so far, and what has been a waste of your time?
Why ask it
Naming the second half out loud gives permission to criticize, which few clients will do unprompted to someone who controls their access to help. If a referral turned out to be useless, pass that back to whoever keeps your agency's resource list so the next client is not sent there.
Is the plan still about the right things?
Why ask it
Plans go out of date faster than they get rewritten, and a client will keep nodding at goals that stopped mattering in the second month. Cross out what is finished or no longer wanted while they watch, so the page matches the life.
How are things with the people you share the house with?
Why ask it
Shared rooms and shared kitchens wear people down, and a quarrel over noise or food can end a stay before the next place is ready. Ask at every review while a client is in a shelter, a shared house or a program, and if what you hear involves a threat or a theft, follow the house procedure instead of settling it informally.
Is there anything you did not feel ready to tell me at the start?
Why ask it
First meetings get the cautious version, particularly about safety, debt and drinking. Save this for a few meetings in, keep any hint of reproach out of it, and leave time afterwards, because what comes out can rewrite the plan.
When you move out, what will you have to arrange for yourself that is taken care of now?
Why ask it
Put this to clients at transitional housing a couple of months before the exit date, not in the final week. Meals, a mailing address, staff to call at night and a lift to appointments tend to stop on the same day as the bed, and each one needs a replacement that has been tried while the client still lives in the program.
What would need to be in place for you not to need us anymore?
Why ask it
Raise the ending well before it arrives, so that closing the case is a goal reached and not a door shut. The answer gives you the checklist for the final months: who they will call, which payments are set up, what they now handle themselves.
Running the intake
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Order of business
- 1Deal with anything urgent before you start the assessment. Nobody can concentrate on a six-month plan while an eviction notice is in their bag.
- 2Explain at the start how long this will take, what you will write down, who can see it, and what you would have to report. That last part depends on your role and where you work, so know your own agency's version before you say it.
- 3Decide what belongs to today. The opening questions, the urgent problem and whatever your agency's form requires come first, and the rest of the list can be spread over more than one meeting.
- 4Cover the practical ground next: where they are staying, money, health, transport. It is easier to answer than history and it builds the picture you need.
- 5Leave safety, past trauma and family detail until the middle, once the room has settled, and never ask with another person present.
- 6Finish with one agreed action each, written down, and read both back before they leave.
- 7Book the next contact while they are still in the room.
Asking so people can answer
Use their words, not the system's
Terms like presenting needs, intervention and support network belong in your notes, not in the conversation. Ask where they are staying, who they can call, and what is not getting paid.
One question at a time
Double-barrelled questions get half an answer, and the half that gets dropped is usually the one that mattered. Ask, wait, then follow up.
Ask what got in the way, not why they did not
A question that begins with why asks for a defence, and people who are defending themselves stop telling you things. What made that difficult keeps the conversation open and gives you something you can act on.
Say what you cannot do
Be clear early about what your service does not provide and how long things realistically take. A limit stated in the first meeting is easier to live with than a promise that quietly does not arrive.
Take notes visibly, and say why
Writing while someone speaks is unnerving unless you explain it. Tell them what you are recording, and offer to read it back at the end so they can correct it.
Say that you ask everyone
Before the questions on mood, alcohol, safety and self-harm, tell the client that these are put to every person you see. It removes the suggestion that something about them prompted the question, and it lets you keep the tone you used for transport and bills.
Let the form follow the conversation
These questions sit alongside your agency's assessment and risk procedures and do not replace them. Where a required field is written in system language, ask it in plain words, then record the answer in the form's terms afterwards.
What tends to go wrong
Assessment before assistance
A full intake completed while a practical crisis goes untouched teaches the client that this process is about paperwork. Solve one thing first, even a small one.
Interviewing with family in the room
Questions about safety, money and health need a private conversation at least once. Make time alone a routine part of every intake, so that nobody is singled out by being asked for it.
Using a relative as an interpreter
A relative edits, softens and sometimes answers for the client, and nobody discloses trouble at home through the person they live with. Use the interpreting service your agency provides and allow extra time for the appointment.
Building the plan around your priorities
A plan the client did not choose gets recorded as non-engagement later. Start with their first choice, even if you would have ranked it third.
Goals nobody can observe
Feeling better and being more stable cannot be reviewed. Rewrite them as something you could both notice: rent paid on time for three months, two appointments kept, a benefit decision received.
Treating a missed appointment as a choice
Before recording a no-show, check the transport, the phone bill, the shift pattern and the letter that never arrived. The cause is usually practical.
Asking about risk without knowing the next step
Nobody should ask about safety at home or self-harm without knowing the agency's procedure for a yes. Read it before the meeting, including who you call and what you record, so that a disclosure is met with a plan.
The whole list in one sitting
An intake that runs through every question here becomes an interrogation, and the answers get shorter as it goes on. Cover what the urgent problem needs, book the next contact, and pick up the rest then.
At review
- Begin with what has changed and with what each of you agreed to do, your own task included, before you open the plan.
- Ask the safety question again. First answers are often cautious, and circumstances change.
- Check what has changed in income, housing and household since the last meeting, since eligibility follows these.
- Ask what has been useless as well as what has helped, and record it in their words.
- Confirm consent is still current, particularly if a new agency has become involved.
- Close any goal that is finished rather than carrying it forward, and say plainly which ones are not going to happen and why.
- Talk about the ending early. Ask what would need to be in place for the client to manage without the service, and work toward that list.
Questions to ask clients in transitional housing
- At move-in, ask where the client was living before and what ended it, what is still owed to a past landlord, and which house rule will be hardest to keep. Those three answers shape the stay.
- In the first week, go through the housing lists and applications the client is on and confirm each one is still live. The stay has an end date and a waiting list does not.
- Ask who is living somewhere else for now, whether a child, a partner or a pet, and write bringing the household back together into the plan.
- Where your role allows, keep the conversation about house rules apart from the one about the case plan. A resident who thinks any answer could count toward a warning will give you careful ones.
- From the middle of the stay, ask at each review what the client wants in the next place and what still stands between them and a lease.
- Well before the exit date, list what the program supplies that stops on move-out day, and set up each replacement while the client is still in the house.
- Time limits, fees and discharge rules differ from one program and funder to the next, so read your own program's before you tell a client what will happen.