Carer Assignments
Some carer-specific organisations have a special, custom version of Charitylog. This page is not about the carer version (for information on this, see Charitylog: Carer Version). This page deals with Carer Assignments, which is a simple way of recording a carer/cared for relationship for people on a standard Charitylog system.
Contents
Ways to manage carers
Carers can be managed on two levels in Charitylog and both may be used at the same time:
- Simple carer assignments. This involves adding carers (or in turn volunteers, clients etc. into carers) and simply assigning them to clients. Other basic details such as start and end dates, the number of hours of care provided and the relationship between the two parties may also be recorded. They may be paid care workers or informal carers such as somebody caring for their partner. This is covered in this guide.
- If you need to be able to set up projects involving care workers which deliver one or more services, and you need to make up care plans for clients and record the work done on an on-going basis, you probably need the Support Worker module. If you do not have this on your system, please call Charitylog to discuss an upgrade.
The key difference between these two scenarios, which may help you identify which method you should be using, is that Simple Carer Assignments are - well - simpler! They exist independent of projects, and they do not relate to particular actions. They are more for information than for counting. Limited reports are available to access the data held as part of a Simple Carer Assignment. However, it is still extremely useful to have carer relationships recorded on your system.
Storing information about Carers
Charitylog allows you to store information about carers in broadly the same way as with clients. Under the "Organisations and People" menu is an item for Carers:
Just as with clients, clicking on the "Carers" menu item takes you to a search form. Using this form you can see if the carer you are looking for is on the system, and create them if not. (The "Record a Contact (for a new client)" button does not have a carer equivalent, so you need to create a carer record from scratch using the "New" tab or the "Create New" button.)
Be very careful when creating new carers though, as there is a reasonable chance they are already on the system as a client. If they are, you will be alerted by a message like this on the search results:
This means, "there are no Carers on the system by that name, but there is someone else (they might be a Client, a Volunteer or similar) by that name." Clicking the "Search All" button at this point will show you who those people are, along with what their current roles are (in this case, they are a client and a volunteer). You are given the option to "Make into Carer".
So you might:
- Find that the carer you are looking for is on the system already (click on their name to see their details)
- Find that they are on the system but not as a carer, so you make them into a carer (after which you will be returned to the search form)
- Find that they are not on the system at all, and create them from scratch
Whichever path you take, you will end up at the Carer Details screen, as shown.
Assigning Carers
There are two main ways that you can make Simple Carer Assignments.
Assigning carers from the tab on the Client Details screen
Clicking the "Support Assigned" tab on the Client Details screen will show you if any assignments are currently active between this client and one or more carers. This screen also shows if any Support Workers are assigned to the client as part of a care plan made with the Support Worker module - these assignments will be shown with a project associated, whereas any Simple Carer Assignments will be shown with the "Project" column empty. Click the "New Carer Assignment" button.
This will take you to the "Assign Carer" screen, where you can add the following:
- Name of the carer you want to assign (click the group of yellow people to look up from a list)
- Dates for the start and end of the assignment - the start date is mandatory, the end date is optional
- Number of hours, and how often these hours occur
- Personal relationship, if any, between the client and the carer
- Caring relationship between the client and the carer
- Notes
When you use the lookup button for the carer, you are given the option to add a new record at this point if the carer you want isn't on the system. It is strongly recommended that unless you know the carer does not exist on your Charitylog system, you exit the carer assignment process, and use the Carers menu item to run a search for them to check that they aren't already on the system as a client, volunteer etc.
Once you have completed the required fields, click "Save Details". This will take you back to the Client Details screen, where you can see the details of your new assignment on the "Support Assigned" tab.
