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Case Managemente

Aim

By the end of this session, you should understand how to set-up CiviCase and when it can be used

Objectives

Specific objectives:

  • Understand the principles behind CiviCase and under what circumstances it can be used
  • Understand how to configure the CiviCase settings
  • Understand the CiviCase interface

Learning points

You should aim to cover the following points in this session

  • What a case is
  • How to add a new case type
  • How to add new cases and to manage a case

Extra points that it would be good to go into, if there is time include:

  • Case reports

Session Plan

This session should last 30 minutes and there are no exercises.

Basic concepts (15 minutes)

Give the group a basic understanding as to what a case is. That;

  • A collection of activities make up a single case
  • A set workflow can be applied to a case (a workflow being a number of set sequenced activities called a Timeline)
  • It is often used where various staff members (or external agencies) need to be involved in a single case*

Ask the group to give example case types and discuss these. A good simple example is a medical one - 'open case', 'see doctor', ' approved for physiotherapy', 'attend physiotherapy sessions', 'close case'. Or a Housing case type.

Go to the Case dashboard and look at each of the screen elements.

You should then create a new case of type Housing Support, show the status and look at the activities that appear in the timeline.

It is important to make it clear that the timeline doesn't have to be fixed and then you can add other activities to the case.

Explain the Case Roles and highlight how the existing contact relationships and case resources also appear on the case screen. Case resources are available to all cases of a given case type.

Search for some cases and show the learners how you can use find activities to look for specific case activities (e.g. Search for open case activities only).

Adding a new case type / Case configuration (15 minutes)

Explain that setting up a new case type requires careful consideration.

Navigate to Administer->CiviCase->CaseTypes.

  • The screen lists available activity types including the maximum number of instances of an activity within a case (e.g. open * case should have a maximum instance of 1)
  • To add new activity types to a case which don't already exist in CiviCRM, you will need to create new activity types first via the administration menu.
  • If you are adding a Timeline you will need to identify the activities which are included in the timeline and the number of days between each activity (called the offset)
  • Sequences are similar to timelines but are not constrained by time, but are tasks which have to occur in the defined order
  • Determine who will be involved in the case (the case roles). These relationships will have to be added to the Administration / Relationship Types list first

More useful tools for Case Management

Explain that the CiviCRM book contains more detail on case management. See the CiviCase section.