The Art of Writing a Case Note
Please be sure to review Chapter 23 along with all other module content before beginning this discussion.
Writing case notes effectively takes time and practice. To be able to do this well, we will begin our journey to case note writing here. While chapter 23 provides very useful information regarding notes, please utilize the SOAP Note Writing Tips for Mental Health Counselors for this discussion. Also, please review:
- Boyles, O. (2020). Writing Effective Case Management Notes
- Rush, M. (2020). How Can I Write Better Therapist SOAP Notes?
Keeping the reader and future readers (in this case fellow students and instructor) in mind:
- Write a note on an encounter that you recently experienced with another person. It should be written using concepts that we learned in this module.
- Write in third person narrative, referring to yourselves as CM and to the client as CLT.
- The note should be between five and six sentences long.
- Use measurable and objective terms.
- After the initial post read and reply to other students about
- Whether or not you had a clear picture of what your peer was trying to convey.
- If you have questions for clarification please ask.
Often times Federal, State, an Agency regulations dictate the details in note writing, so the SOAP method is the most general. We will be using the SOAP method as it is the most basic foundation to build notes upon. Some of you will have years of experience writing notes and some of you will have none. Please be mindful that this is a process and that we are all learning from one another.