Infonet User S Advisory Group

InfoNet User’s Advisory Group

February 1, 2007

10:30am to 12:15pm

Attendance: Heather Fox, Urbana; Tricia Sheets and Martha Daly, Canton; Addie Chattic, Sterling; Jodi Shumate, Quincy; Jacque Voorhees and Ryan Landis, Peoria; Yesinia Romo, Between Friends, Chicago; Brenda Carter, Freeport; Toleyne Ray, Centralia; Clare Snyder, Granite City; Theresa Boksa, Elgin; Jennifer Hiselman, ICJIA; Karen Gill, IDHS; and Sarah Conlon, ICADV

Minutes:

Project Updates

User’s Manual: The electronic version of the User’s Manual is available for download at Hard copies have not been distributed yet. ICADV and ICJIA are researching the possibility of hiring a printing company to complete the job.

Trainings: Trainings have been tentatively scheduled for:

• New User Training: March 14, 2007, Chicago
• New User Training: March 27, 2007, Springfield
• Funding For Staff/Reports Training: May 2, 2007, Chicago
• Funding For Staff/Reports Training: May 9, 2007, Springfield

More details about registration and location of these trainings will be forwarded closer to the date of each training.

Training for July 1, 2007 Modifications, including HMIS changes, will be scheduled closer to the time those changes have been implemented. New data entry forms that include these July 1 changes will be distributed by June 1, 2007.

Update 6-7-07: ICJIA is still working with the state’s administrative agency, Central Management Services, to select the vendor that will complete services required for the HMIS modifications. More information will be available as soon as a timeline is obtained from the vendor that will complete the services needed.

Glitches Using IE7: Some user’s have upgraded their Internet browser to Internet Explorer, Version 7 which has caused a few minor challenges. (Example: a scroll bar was missing from the Funding For Staff page—this has since been fixed) If programs upgrade to Version 7 and notice minor changes/challenges with InfoNet, they are strongly encouraged to email immediately so these issues may be resolved as soon as possible.

Feedback on Recent Modifications

Turn Away Data On Services Report: Turn Away Data may now be found at the end of the Services/Programs reports. ICADV and IDHS also now have access to this report through the administrative reporting utility.

Non English Speaking Special Need Missing From Report: One program reported that the data indicating a client is non-English Speaking is missing from the Client Information Report. Hiselman will check into this.

Transitional Housing/Housing Advocacy: These services are now reporting accurately on the Standard and Management reports. When the services were first posted last July, the Transitional Housing services were being reported in the hourly service section instead of the days in shelter/transitional housing section of reports.

Future Modifications

Departure Information: Part of the HMIS changes include adding 4 questions about a client’s departure destination. These changes will be implemented on July 1, 2007. However, years ago, ICADV collected client departure information on a limited number of clients. The group explored the possibility of collecting this information again. Programs seemed interested in that possibility and more discussion about collection client satisfaction and other departure information will take place at a later date. Other sources of information to consider for this discussion: evaluation research; CDHS departure information; client satisfaction questions; client homicide information.

Update 6-7-07: Again, because HMIS changes to InfoNet have not yet begun, the changes will not be implemented by July 1st. More information will be shared when a timeline is obtained from the vendor that will complete the services needed.

Court Appearances and Continuances: On July 1, 2007 there will change to Police/Prosecution Tab data entry. Data fields collecting number of Court Appearances, Defense Continuances and Prosecution Continuances should be increased numerically as there are additional continuances in a client’s criminal case against her abuser. Instead of collecting information and increasing the number for each for each of these data fields (ie changing a 1 to a 2, a 2 to 3, and so on), programs will enter each appearance and continuance with a date tied to it. This will make data reporting more accurate. Programs may be able to use this data is an extra systems advocacy tool to demonstrate not onlyhow many times a client had to appear in court to finalize her case, but also the duration of how long the case lasted (e.g. 2 years).

Victim/Offender Relationship: 3 issues related to victim/offender relationship were discussed.

1. ISP data indicates that over 7% of all domestic calls are regarding a parent as a victim, child abuser. Because this figure is fairly significant, Hiselman suggests adding relationship of abuser to victim of child/grandchild. Although the group agreed in the past this specified data wasn’t necessary, after further discussion, agreed that it may be helpful. Several programs report that they have more cases that aren’t intimate partner violence, but rather family members such as child. The group agreed that “female—child/grandchild” and “male—child/grandchild” options would be added to the offender relationship drop down list. Gill also notes that if programs seeing an increase in these types of cases, that maybe this should be considered when discussing needs for new curricula.
2. Also during this discussion, the group wondered why “Stranger—male/female” are options in this list. If an offender is a stranger, it wouldn’t qualify them for domestic violence services. Hiselman will research how often these options are used and bring the results to the next meeting.
3. One program asked whether “unknown” should be removed as an option from this drop down list. Some members felt that if you can’t determine the relationship of the offender to the victim, you can’t determine client eligibility. Some programs also felt that using unknown to some intake questions was not allowable. Gill notes that using unknown should be minimized and that the most data possible should be gathered. However, in a few cases, some unknowns may be necessary. Other members felt that in very few cases, an advocate may not obtain this information in a crisis situation for a new client. And some of those clients don’t return for subsequent services. In these cases, they felt it would be necessary to document the offender’s relationship as unknown. Hiselman will research how often this is used to describe the offender’s relationship and bring results back to the group at its next meeting.

Reports

Report Identifying Clients With Unknown Intake Data Fields: This report should be completed and posted in the next few days. The report is reporting the vast majority of ID numbers that have unknowns, however, in testing there still is error that seems to be omitting a few isolated clients in some cases. ICJIA will post the report as is and will be continuing to work on fixing the outstanding error in the report. Offender relationships with data as unknown is not included in this report—only client intake fields are included. Gill also reminds programs that “unknown” as data entered for the “Is Pregnant?” intake field is acceptable. Many clients may fall in this category.

No Show/Cancellation Report: ICJIA hopes to have this report completed by April 2006. This will show the ID numbers and dates of scheduled appointments and which service was planned.

Update 6-7-06: The No Show/Cancellation Report is still being developed by InfoNet programmers. The new expected date of completion is August 2007.

Media Reporting: Programs may have noticed that the Media activities in the Community Institutional Reports reflects 0 activities. This is due the data table structure changes that took place last summer. ICJIA hopes to have this fixed by July 1, 2007. In the meantime, if you need a report for your agency on the media activities you have conducted, contact .

New Funding For Staff Report Coming: A new report reflecting services supported by one particular grant is being designed. This report will be helpful to programs when they feel their numbers are reported inaccurately for a VOCA or VAWA grant. Using this report, they can get quick look at which staff people are funded with the grant and for which services.

Staff Client Service Management Report: ICJIA cleaned this report up a little bit to reflect more accurate data. This is in the testing phase and ICJIA hopes to post the revised report by the end of February.

NEED: Report showing nights of shelter (not days of shelter). Several programs indicated that some of their funders what to know nights of shelter provided to clients instead of Days of shelter. A Management report will be created, including several filters, to allow programs to report on nights of shelter. Programs also wish to see clients separated out on this report that are in shelter less than 24 hours (ie their shelter begin and shelter end dates are the same). Some funders wish to see the subset of data on these clients.

Guidelines for Data Entry

New Business

OP Data: One program requested a data field to collect information on “expedited” OP hearings. This is when an EOP is granted for 21 days; the abuser requests an “expedited” hearing, usually taking place with 2-3 days of the issued date of the EOP; sometimes the result is a vacated order—sometimes the result is a continuation of the EOP---sometimes the result is the victim receiving the POP at that hearing. The program wishes to collect this information to help support system advocacy efforts with the judge making these decisions. Conlon notes that for now, the program may use the “comments” field on the OP tab and at some point further discussions may need to take place about this.

Technical Assistance Calls: ICJIA and ICADV have been cofacilitating these calls monthly, alternating between management/reporting issues and data collection/entry issues. Those programs that do participate in these calls report positive feedback so there is a need to continue them. However, Conlon reports that the agendas of the last 2 calls have been quite light and therefore calls will drop back to being every other month. Programs are encouraged to email with suggestions for agendas for upcoming technical assistance calls.

Next Meeting Date

MAY 31, 2007 10:30am to 1pm

Update 6-7-07: Next meeting date will be announced when a timeline is obtained from the vendor that will complete the services needed for the HMIS changes, as this will be one of the primary agenda items.