Foundations | Client Journals
The purpose of this stage of Foundations is for Staff to commence recording Journal evidence to document ongoing support and track Clients' progress towards their Goals. This evidence forms part of your organisation's compliance obligations under the NDIS.
Client Journal entries are in essence any notes or evidence recorded by Staff who work and interact directly with Clients. Client Journals are an important way to document ongoing support and track Clients' progress towards their Goals.
Many Providers choose to commence entering Client Journals once fundamental information has been entered into Client records: 'Client Details', 'Client Documents', 'Client Goals' and 'Client Goal Strategies'.
Audience: Authorised Representatives and anyone tasked with completing this phase of implementation.
Summary
The following list summarises the content within this article. Click on the links below to take you to the relevant sections:
- Where can Client Journals be created?
- The Client Journal record
- Where can Client Journals be accessed?
- Incidents List
- Summary checklist
- A summary of the required action steps is included at the end of this article to assist your organisation complete this stage of implementation.
The information below is a comprehensive guide relating to Client Journals and is supported by detailed learning material in the form of videos and knowledge articles which have been linked at the end of this article. We recommend reviewing this information in conjunction with this article to gain a thorough understanding of all related functionality.
Journals in SupportAbility have several useful features to enhance the quality of the Journal entry by providing more comprehensive information.
Service Status when adding a Client Journal
When creating a Client Journal the status of the Client's Service Participation is listed next to each of the Service/Sites available for selection:
- Current - Client currently participating in Site/Service.
- Historical - Client participated in Site/Service historically.
- Not Used - Client has never participated in this Site/Service.
This may be helpful as the Site/Services displayed for selection are based on the Staff members privileges and not the Client:
The Client Journal record
The 'Client Journal' record is comprised of five sections:
- Journal Details
- Journal Notes
- Standards
- Goals
- Journal Actions
Which fields within each section Staff are required to complete, needs consideration by your organisation, and may differ for each Journal Type. Staff will need to be instructed accordingly.
Journal Details
A link to the Client record is included in this section; along with a navigation tool, the Journal Date, the ability to apply any configured Tags, Site/Service information, and the capacity to link uploaded Client Documents:
N.B. Whilst a Client Assessment may be added, we do not recommend commencing with this additional feature at this stage of your implementation.
Journal Notes
Information regarding the Journal Author is displayed in this section, along with the privacy settings of 'Managers Only' and 'Team Leaders Only' for any sensitive information. The relevant Client Journal Type may also be selected, along with the Activity it relates to (where applicable), a unique Title for the Journal entry is recommended to make it easily identifiable, and lastly, Staff can enter detailed Notes:
N.B. The 'Activity' field is automatically populated when the Journal has been created from an Activity. This is discussed in more detail in the later stages of implementation.
The above image displays an example of a Journal Template in the Notes field which has been added for the Journal Type of 'Goal Evidence' in this case. Journal Templates can be added for different Journal Types to guide Staff on the information required when recording a Client Journal. Please see the Configuring Journals article linked below for more information.
Goals
Client Goals and Goal Strategies may be added to Client Journals, to aid in demonstrating how your organisation is supporting Clients towards their Goals. Goal Progress Assessment scores can also be added to track progress:
Please see the Client Journals article linked below for more information regarding adding Client Goals and/or Goal Strategies.
Standards
There are three in-built Standards available in SupportAbility, including:
- Each of the NDIS Practice Standards,
- the National Disability Standards, and the
- DMI Codes (Disability Maintenance Instrument), specific to providers of Supported employment.
To add a Standard to a Journal, simply select the +Add Standard button in the 'Standards' section of the Journal, which will open the Search function:
For example, to search for a Standard from the NDIS Practice Standards, (which are prefaced with 'QSF' in SupportAbility), you can either type 'Q' in the search field to access the full list of these Standards, or more specifically type a keyword e.g. 'Core' to narrow your search:
Once a Standard has been added, it will appear in the Standards section of the Journal record:
Further information regarding Standards in SupportAbility can be found in the Standards in SupportAbility and the Adding a Standard Knowledge Base articles linked below.
Journal Actions
Journal Actions are essentially tasks that can be assigned to individual Staff members for follow-up and appear on the Staff member's Dashboard for completion.
Examples of Actions may include required follow-up communication, reviewing Goal Strategies, additional support requirements, etc. Due dates can also be set, and these Actions can later be marked as 'Completed':
Notification reminders for 'Incomplete Client Journal Actions' will appear on the Dashboard of the assigned Staff Member for completion:
N.B. The 'Incomplete Client Journal Actions' Dashboard Portal must be configured for your organisation in order for these notifications to appear.
The Client Journals and Journal Search article linked below, steps through all of this information in more detail.
'Incomplete' Client Warnings
If an organisation has the optional setting 'Include Journal Actions In Incomplete Client Review' activated on the Journals tab in System Preferences, and 'Journal Actions' have been set as Mandatory for a specific Journal Type, whenever a Journal Action is missing for a Journal of that Journal Type an 'Incomplete' Warning will display in the 'Client Warnings' bar at the top of the Client record.
The Configuring Journals article linked below, steps through this functionality in more detail.
Where can Client Journals be accessed?
All Journals relating to a Client can be accessed via the 'Journal' tab of their Client record.
Journals may be filtered by From and To Date, Service Type, and/or Journal Type:
It is important to note, the Journal entries Staff can see are based on their Staff Account privileges. We recommend your organisation reviews the Journal Permissions article as this covers important information regarding privacy restrictions and accessing Journals.
Journals may also be accessed via the 'Journals' Search from the Dashboard:
The list results are also determined by the users Staff Account privileges.
Incidents List
You may also notice the 'Incidents List' located at the bottom of the 'Journal' tab in a Client record:
Recording Client Incidents is an optional feature for recording information relating to Client incidents. For more information regarding this feature and related functionality please review the C lient Incidents article linked below.
Summary checklist
When instructing Staff on how to create Client Journal entries, we recommend the following as a guide:
Journal Details
- Select the relevant Site/Service (completed when creating a Client Journal)
- Link any relevant uploaded Client Documents to the Journal entry
- Add any relevant 'Tags' to the Journal Details (optional)
Journal Notes
- Apply the Privacy/Security settings if appropriate: 'Managers Only' or 'Team Leaders Only'
- Select the relevant 'Client Journal Type' (this is particularly important if Journal Templates have been configured for certain Journal Types)
- Enter a unique Title to make it easily identifiable
- Add the Journal Note providing as much information as required for the selected Journal Type
Standards
- Add one or more of the different types of Standards as is appropriate for this Journal i.e. NDIS Practice Standards, the National Disability Standards, and/or the DMI Codes (Disability Maintenance Instrument)
Goals
- Add a Goal/Goal Strategy where relevant N.B. Adding a Client Goal/Goal Strategy and recording Assessment scores may not be applicable for all Journal entries
- View any Standards applicable to the Goal
- Add an Assessment Score where applicable
Actions
- Consider if Journal Actions will benefit your organisation and add an Action as required to act as a reminder. View this on the Dashboard.
We hope this guide has assisted your organisation to determine a plan for entering Client Journals.