Tips and Tricks

Here's the situation: one of the agencies within your community wants to use HIFIS 4. Everything seems to be going pretty well until they casually mention that they have a lot of volunteers, or students, or temps, and they typically just create one user account for all of these people to use.  No big deal, right?  

Well, actually, it is a big deal. 

Within the IT world, it is very strongly recommended that user accounts are NEVER shared.  There are several really important reasons why this is an i…

Communities ask me all the time about the Geographic Region field on the Client Vitals screen.  All. The. Time. Not sure what I'm talking about?  There it is below, when you add a new Client.

There are really two questions I get asked:

1. Why does it say things like "This Community" and "This Region"?

2. What exactly are we supposed to select?

In summary, you're expected to modify the Geographic Region drop-down menu to include relevant regions for your local area. Then, when you add a client, select the …

What Data do you Want to Collect?

The first step to answering a question like "how are we going to record data" is first answering a different question: "what data do we need?"

Imagine one drop-in cent…

Communities often ask about the best way to record shelter diversion in HIFIS 4.  This is another area where there is no clear answer.  There are a few good options, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.  But first, let's talk about what diversion means in your community.

What is diversion?

Consider this definition from the National Alliance to End Homelessness:

Diversion is a strategy that prevents homelessness for people seeking shelter by helping them identify immediate alternate h…

One of the pillars of protecting client information is making sure that the only people accessing a client's information are the people that need that information to be able to serve the client.  A previous article discussed limiting user access to files via attestation, but that's not the only tool in your toolbox.

Service Provider Visibility Settings 

A shelter that only serves adult men does not need to be able to access client files for women and children, and they probably don't need to a…

Not all of the drop-down menus in HIFIS (any version) are going to meet every community's needs. One community might really like the available Reasons for (Service) Restrictions, while other communities might find its options limited. Most communities want to change the options in the Geographic Region drop-down menu, and many want to update the Goods and/or Services menus to better reflect the services they offer.

Look-up Tables

You can customize values in these drop-down menus. They're refer…

Back in the olden days, a lot of funding for homeless programs were funded on a per diem basis.

That means that shelter beds were paid for based on their usage. For every bed-night (one client in one bed for one night), service providers would receive a set amount ($43.00 for emergency shelters in Ontario in 2011).

When HIFIS was first developed, per diem funding was standard. Today, HIFIS Administrators can see the legacy of this type of funding if they know where to look. For example, when y…

One of the best practices in ending homelessness is to work with a client to develop a support network of friends, loved ones, and professionals who work together to support the client. That way, an intensive case manager can ensure that the client has robust social supports for the future when the client might have a crisis and the intensive case manager might no longer be available to support the client.

Communities might also simply wish to record a client's emergency contact information or …

Update: As of May 2019, CHPI no longer requires reporting on the number of LGBTQ clients that access shelters. 

Communities frequently ask me how to record sexual orientation in HIFIS.

There are many reasons that a community would want to collect this information. For example, since we know that LGBTQ youth account for as much as 25%-40% of youth experiencing homelessness, you might want to identify which clients need appropriate services.

In Ontario, any community receiving Community Homeles…