A new partnership between the Government of Jamaica and the World Bank will transform the delivery of case management for social assistance beneficiaries, creating a brighter future for the nation’s most vulnerable. Central to this transformation is the introduction of the Case Management Information System (CMIS), designed to revolutionize how social workers deliver aid to families in need. This innovation enables social workers like Ms. Beverly Forbes-Black, a veteran in the field, to provide more efficient, coordinated, and holistic services.
A Career of Dedication
Beverly Forbes-Black has spent decades serving her community. Her journey began in 1983 when she joined the Ministry of Welfare as a Food Stamp Coordinator. Over the years, she found joy in connecting with the people she served, ensuring families in need received critical resources like food stamps. Beverely was offered multiple promotions that could have taken her into other sectors but chose to stay rooted in social assistance, driven by her passion for making a direct impact on the lives of the most vulnerable.
Now, after years of relying on paper-based systems that were slow and cumbersome, she and her colleagues are testing out a new digital prototype for their case management work. The application allows them to better manage their caseloads, streamline communication, and free up time spent on administration to focus more on the human side of social work.
The Power of Technology in Service Delivery
This system, developed through the support of the World Bank’s Rapid Social Response Trust Fund and the Case Compass initiative, empowers social workers like Beverly to capture real-time data. The CMIS will be able to pull families and individuals data in real time and assess their needs and eligibility for benefits and services, ensuring that no family’s needs fall through the cracks. This seamless integration will enable quicker responses and more accurate tracking of families’ progress.
This shift moves case management from typically only a one-time intake model to long-term, client-centered care. As such, social workers like Beverly can track family progress and ensure continued support through integrated digital case files, reducing errors and enabling timely interventions. The system allows real-time capture of broader needs during home visits, such as food security and water access, facilitating coordination of additional services and ensuring families receive ongoing, holistic assistance.
For Beverly and other social workers in the Ministry, the new CMIS prototype is an improvement over the paper-heavy processes of the past. “This system will be of great help to us as social workers,” said Beverly during a summer field visit. “It will save time. I just pick up my tablet, and everything is there.”
Mrs. Mardelyn Benjamin-Mason and Mrs. Maxine Saunchez, two long-standing social workers in the Ministry, shared their enthusiasm for the system’s efficiency. “Unlike the old process—using paper, returning to the office, and inputting data on the computer—this system provides immediate results from our clients.”
Supporting Vulnerable Jamaicans: Stories of Impact and the Future Potential of CMIS
For one mother, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MLSS) provided critical support by supplying lenses for her daughter’s eye surgery. This highlights the Ministry’s commitment to meeting urgent medical needs and points to how the upcoming Case Management Information System (CMIS) could enhance care delivery.
A water tank provided by the Ministry transformed one family’s daily life, easing struggles with cooking, cleaning, and school preparation. Stories like this demonstrate the Ministry’s impact and the potential for the CMIS to improve access to such interventions.
With financial assistance from the Ministry, one family began building a bathroom, addressing safety and dignity concerns. This underscores the Ministry’s support for housing needs and how the CMIS could strengthen program efficiency.
These examples show the Ministry’s robust support for vulnerable Jamaicans and how future tools like the CMIS can make it even more effective.
Human-Centered Technology for Sustainable Change
The CMIS prototype was designed based on best international practices in case management and is based on a human-centered-design approach to reduce barriers to delivering case management services for both beneficiaries and social workers. The system builds on the global expertise of the World Bank Case Compass team and their support to strengthening case management processes and case management information systems worldwide. The CMIS is designed as an interoperable system with MLSS’s planned Social Protection Information System and other information systems in Jamaica.
The CMIS design, informed by detailed beneficiary and social worker interviews and testing, allows social workers to respond with empathy and precision. It ensures that no critical information is missed during assessments and that they don’t have to ask multiple questions that may be repetitive or difficult for the beneficiary to answer, ultimately leading to more holistic and meaningful interventions. For example, it will strengthen the referral mechanism, allowing beneficiaries to access better-targeted services. The World Bank and Jamaica MLSS teams also took advantage of the prototype development to review the overall beneficiary journey and suggest some simplifications to the processes.
Looking Ahead: A Brighter Future for Jamaica’s Vulnerable
By combining technology with human-centered processes, the CMIS can drive sustainable, impactful change especially if social workers like Beverly are equipped with the tools they need to provide faster, more personalized care.
For Beverly, the transition from paper to digital is about more than just making her job easier—it’s about delivering hope to the families she serves. "It’s not just about the technology," she says, "it’s about being able to help more families, more effectively."
