CFAL-NetCIL Ney York VESID Data Collection Protocol

New York State VESID – CFAL Data Collection Protocol

Following these instructions will ensure the accuracy of statistics that you provide via the New York State VESID Report. Before you begin data entry, please consider the following CFAL database concepts:

1. Definition of a Consumer

People in the CFAL database are categorized by their Contact Type on the People form. When you first begin to interact with someone, it’s usually because they are seeking information and referral assistance; therefore when a new person is entered into the CFAL database, their Contact Type defaults to Information and Referral. When you develop a CSR for someone, they then become a Consumer, and you should set their Contact Type accordingly. Once set, the database will never automatically change a person’s contact type.

2. Definition of Transactions

Every Case Note, Work Log Entry, Provision of Service, or Goal is considered by the CFAL database to be a transaction. Each transaction has an associated date, which normally will be written automatically as the current date and time when a record is entered. You can always edit the dates of any of your records. In order for statistics regarding these transactions to be included in a report, the transaction dates must fall within the reporting period.

3. Definition of Served

A consumer will be considered Served during the reporting period only if a Service is selected for the Services drop down list within the Notes or Referrals forms of CFAL.

The same logic applies for VESID Section III and Section IV statistics: all other people (non consumers) in the database will be listed as Served if a service is recorded during the reporting period, regardless of their status.

How to record data for the VESID Report:

Data for most sections of the VESID report can be recorded in the People form. Data for Sections IIF (Employment Status) and IIG (Education) must be recorded by using the People form.

Section I – Demographic Data for People with CSRs

Only those people whose Contact Type is set to Consumer or Inactive Consumer will be counted in Section I statistics. Inactive Consumers will only be counted if they became inactive after the start of the reporting period and if services were recorded prior to them becoming inactive.

Section I.A - Age:

Age is calculated automatically based on date of birth and the end date of a report. If date of birth is unknown, leave the field blank, and it will be reported in that category. If a birth date must be estimated, it is recommended to use 1/1/yyyy as a convention.

Section I.B - Gender:

If gender is unknown, leave the checkbox blank, and it will be reported in that category.

Section I.C - Race:

Select the appropriate Race from the dropdown box. Native Hawaiians will be counted with American Indian or Alaskan Native on the VESID report. The categories are separated in order to maintain compatibility with the federal RSA/704 report. For VESID reporting, record Pacific Islanders as Asian and Hispanic ethnicity by using the dropdown box. If no Race is selected, statistics will be reported to VESID in the Other category.

Section I.D – Employment Status:

To record Employment Status:

1. Retrieve the consumer record using the People Form.

2. Open the Employment form (Employment History button) and select an Employment Type from the dropdown list. All other data is optional.

The most recent record (as determined by Start Date) will be used for VESID reporting.

Section I.E – Education:

To record Education data:

1. Retrieve the consumer record using the People Form.

2. Open the Education form (Education History button) and select the appropriate category from the Education dropdown list. If the category description does not match one of the standard VESID categories, or if no record is found, education level will be reported as Unknown.

The most recent record (as determined by Date) will be used for VESID reporting.

Section I.F - County served

To be counted in this category, the contact type must be set to “Consumer” and the record must have a valid county listed. Consumers without a county will be recorded as “unknown”

Section I.G - Veterans Served

To be counted in this category, the person must be set as a “Consumer” and the “Veteran checkbox” on the People form must be checked.

Section II A thru F – Disability Data:

A consumer’s primary disability determines how they are reported to VESID. Try to select a primary disability that best describes the consumer’s condition according to one of the standard VESID report categories. If the consumer’s condition is a combination of disabilities, please record each disability separately, using the “Additional Disability” form. The people listed with more than one disability will automatically be counted on Section II- F: Multiple Disability.

You can configure your own list of disabilities through NetCIL Manager in the Disability section of the Config tab. List as many as are necessary in a consumer’s profile. In order for these disabilities to be properly recorded on the VESID Report, each disability in your list must be associated with a standard State Disability category.

Section III – Total People Served During Year:

If a Consumer is no longer active, has moved or withdrawn from programs, you may want to de-activate them prior to running your VESID report

To de-activate a consumer:

1. Retrieve the consumer record using the People form - change Contact Type to Inactive Consumer and select Enter or Tab.

2. A new window will automatically open. Select a Reason for Deactivation and an applicable Date so that the reason will be properly recorded. If no reason is selected, Other will be assumed.

3. This process will automatically add a note Consumer Becomes Inactive in the consumer’s history record, listing the reason for deactivation and recording the selected date.

4. This process will also automatically drop any open goals by writing an Actual End Date and selecting Dropped in the Outcome Score list. If any Grant or program was linked to the consumer (Grant History button), an automatic Inactive Date will be written.

The date that you specify will determine whether or not a consumer is listed as inactive for a given reporting period. For example, if a consumer is listed as inactive but the date of deactivation is after the end date of a report, the consumer will still be listed as active for that report.

Once a de-activation case note is written, the consumer will be listed as inactive for all reports that end after the date of deactivation. If a consumer re-activates, change their contact type back to Consumer. A new note will automatically appear, and the category Consumer Re-activates will be selected. The consumer will then be listed as active for all reporting periods during which the consumer was once again active.

Section III A – People with disabilities:

Every served person in your database will be included in this category if they are listed with a Primary Disability, regardless of their Contact Type.

Section III B – Family members/ significant others:

To record information about family members or significant others:

1. Set the Contact Type (People Form) to Collateral - Family/Friend.

2. All served Collateral-Family/Friend people in your database will be included in this category.

Section III C – Other non-disabled:

To record information about other non-disabled people:

1. Set the Contact Type (People Form) to any category except Consumer, Inactive Consumer, or Collateral - Family/Friend.

2. Ensure that the Primary Disability field is blank.

3. Every served person in your database who meets these criteria will be included in this category.

Section III D – Total consumers projected in contract to be served:

As long as a consumer is considered to be served (Contact Type Consumer), they will also be considered as projected to be served. Any consumer who has been de-activated will not be included in this category, regardless of the date of deactivation.

Section III E – Total consumers receiving direct services:

Every person whose Contact Type (People Form) is set to Consumer, with a service recorded during the reporting period (through the Notes or Referral forms) will be included in this category, along with Inactive Consumers whose date of de-activation falls within a reporting period.

Section III F – CSRs returning that were served during prior reporting years:

To be counted in this category, an individual has the following criteria:

- Contact Type must be set to Consumer or Inactive Consumer

- A service must be recorded in either the Notes or Referrals form in the year prior to the reporting period.

- A service must be recorded in either the Notes or Referrals form in the current reporting year.

Section III G - CSRs started (new) since Oct. 1 of report year:

To be counted in this category, an individual record must have the following criteria:

- Contact Type must be set to Consumer or Inactive Consumer

- The Initial Entry date or the Person becomes a Consumer date is within the current reporting year.

- A service must be recorded in either the Notes or Referrals in the current reporting year.

Section III H - Total CSRs served during report year (F+G):

Add section F and G together. The number should match the CSRs data in section I

Section III I - Businesses/Agencies served:

To include data in this category, perform the following steps:

1. From the Main Form, press the Work Log button.

2. Make a Work Log entry and enter as much information as is pertinent. Make sure to specify an Organization from the dropdown list. If the organization has not been previously entered, you will be given the option of adding it.

3. All organizations for which a Work Log entry has been recorded during a reporting period will be included in Section III VESID statistics. Each organization will be counted only once.

Section IV – Individual Services – No. of Persons Served:

Service information will be reported in Section IV of the VESID report regardless of a person’s status. A person can be counted in as many service categories as are pertinent, but they will be counted only once per category.

There are two basic ways to record the provision of a service, and each is designed to accommodate a different circumstance:

1. For a single instance of a service provided on a single date, write a note (Notes button on the People Form) and specify the service in the Services dropdown edit box.

2. For provision of a service which will require a referral to a staff and/or an organization, make an entry into the Referrals section of the People form. You can also use the NetCIL IRLog application to record services. When using the Referrals section of the People form, ensure that a Referral to Staff entry is made so that CFAL can alert the appropriate staff member about the request. NetCIL IRLog will automatically write an open service request whenever a Referral to Staff record is written. All Referral records for which the Completion Date is blank will be considered to be open referrals, but will still be included in the services section of VESID.

It should be noted that Section IV (I), Information and Referral, represents a special case to the CFAL database. As described at the beginning of this document, when a new person is entered, their Contact Type defaults to Information and Referral. Setting their contact type to Information and Referral does not however represent the provision of a service. In order for this person to be included in the Information & Referral service section of VESID, a service must be selected in either the Notes or Referral form of CFAL.

You can configure your own list of services through the NetCIL Manager under the Services section of the Config tab. List as many as you wish in a consumer’s profile. In order for these services to be properly recorded on the VESID report, each must be associated with a standard State category.

VESID Narrative Section:

In order to assist you with completion of the VESID narrative section, the CFAL application can assemble notes from all relevant Goals, Projects, Events, and Work Log entries and merge them into a Microsoft Word document for editing. To initiate this function, select Narrative Report from the CFAL Main menu. All of the following transactions will be output:

1. Community Goals with a Start Date before the end of a reporting period, and an End Date within the date range of a report, or a blank End Date, which indicates that the Community Goal is on-going.

2. Events that fall within the reporting period.

3. All Work Log entries that fall within the date range of the report and which are associated with a goal, project, or event.

4. All other Projects and Events that are not associated with a Goal, and which fall within the date range of the reporting period.

5. All Work Log entries that are not associated with an Event or a Project, and which fall within the date range of the reporting period.

The CFAL database allows you to associate Goals, Projects, and Events in any combination that you wish. When a Narrative Report is generated, Goals will be output in alphabetical order, and grouped with notes about Events and Projects that are associated with them.

For more information on any of the topics covered in this document, please refer to the CFAL Client User’s Manual. A current copy of the manual is available from our website by following this link: http://help.netcil.com.

For additional assistance please contact ed2c technical support toll-free at (888) 678-0683 x0 or by sending e-mail to techsupport@ed2c.com.

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