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Adding and managing a family

A family is the household record everything else hangs off of. This article covers creating one, adding the people in it, and keeping it current.

Before you start​

Who can do this: practice managers, supervisors, and admins. Workers can view the families they're assigned to but don't create them.

Have ready:

  • The family's name and primary county.
  • The DCS case number if you have it (see the note below).
  • The people in the household and their dates of birth.
DCS case number: optional now, required before a referral

You can create a family without a DCS case number, but you'll need to add one before you can create a referral for that family. FCR will stop you at the referral step until the case number is on the family record.

Create the family​

  1. Go to Families and choose Add family.
  2. Enter the family details.
  3. FCR runs a duplicate check first — it searches existing families by name and DCS case number.
  4. If matches come up, review them. If one is the family you mean, open it instead of creating a new record. If none match, choose None of these — create anyway to continue.
  5. Save the family.
Always check the duplicate results before creating

Creating a second record for a family you already serve splits its history across two files. The duplicate check is there to prevent exactly that — take the moment to read the matches.

Add the people in the family​

Add each household member with their identity and date of birth. A couple of things FCR handles for you:

  • Age is calculated automatically from the date of birth — you don't set "age" or "minor" by hand.
  • Sensitive demographics (such as race, ethnicity, and primary language) are only visible to staff actually assigned to that family's cases.

Keeping a family current​

  • Edit anytime. Identity and demographics don't go through a submit/approve workflow — fix a typo or update contact info whenever you need to.
  • Members are end-dated, never deleted. When someone leaves the household, you end their membership (with an optional reason) rather than removing them. This preserves the history, which matters for billing.
  • People can come back, and can belong to more than one family. A member can be re-added after being end-dated, and the same person can belong to different families over time (common with kinship and custody changes).

Removing a family​

You can soft-delete a family that was created in error or is no longer needed — but not while it still has active referrals. End or discharge the referrals first, then remove the family.

FAQ​

I started adding a family and it warned me about a possible duplicate. That's the duplicate check doing its job. Review the suggested matches — open the existing family if it's the right one, or choose None of these — create anyway if it genuinely is a new household.

Can I delete a member who was added by mistake? Members aren't hard-deleted; you end-date the membership. If it was a true data-entry error, edit the record or contact your practice manager.

Why can't I delete this family? A family with active referrals can't be removed. Close out the referrals first.

A worker says they can't see a family. Workers only see families they're assigned to. Assign them to the case (or the relevant referral) and it will appear for them — see Assigning workers to a case.