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Get Started with Care Plans

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

  • Define care plans in Nonprofit Cloud for Programs.
  • Describe how care plans work with the intake and participant management processes.
  • Explain the components of a care plan.
Note

Salesforce for Nonprofits includes integrated platform solutions and managed packages. This module provides information about Nonprofit Cloud for Programs, an integrated solution that includes Case Management. For information on managed package products, visit the Manage Client Outcomes with Nonprofit Cloud Case Management trail. If you’re not sure which solution your organization uses, check with your Salesforce admin.

Before You Start

Before you start this module, consider completing the following recommended content.

Guide Participants Toward Success

Providing individualized care for program participants is a major effort with a bunch of information to track. That data includes services, tasks, notes, and goals—all tailored to help each participant improve their unique circumstances.

In Nonprofit Cloud, all this information is related and tracked using the Care Plan object. 

Care Plan records combine all the information and elements that case managers and case workers use to help participants. Each care plan consists of primary and milestone goals, programs, benefits, tasks, notes, and more. All of these pieces are connected to a participant's case record and their person account record to make sure your team has a complete view of their progress.

An example care plan record for a participant who’s learning healthy cooking skills.

This module covers:

  • How to map your care plan process
  • How to create templates for standard care plans
  • How to individualize care plans for specific participants
  • How to manage and close individual care plans

First, it’s time to see what happens before you create a care plan for a participant.

Note

Case workers at different organizations use different terms to describe the people they serve, like clients, students, guests, or something more specific. We use the term participant here to refer to anyone enrolled in your programs and benefits.

Get to the Care Plan Stage

Care plans document the bulk of the work you do with a program participant, but it isn’t where the process starts.

You usually work your way through referrals and an intake process first. Here’s a brief review of what happens before you create a care plan and the Nonprofit Cloud tools you use.

  • Referrals: The Referral object tracks requests for services. Referrals come from another organization, another team at your organization, or an individual seeking assistance. Referrals can arrive through a number of channels—emails, calls, texts, or web chats—depending on how your organization works. Referrals relate to a person account record for the potential participant. For information on person account records, complete the Stakeholder Management in Nonprofit Cloud module.

  • Case: After you receive a referral, use it to create a case record to track a participant’s relationship with your organization, a program, or a case manager. Think of it as a folder that follows the participant and collects all the information about their engagement. Complete the Cases in Nonprofit Cloud for Programs module for details about creating and managing cases.

  • Intake: After creating a case, you start the intake process. Your organization can create predefined lists of tasks using action plan templates that guide your team and participants through the process.

  • Assessment: One of the tasks in your intake process could be an assessment. Assessments help you evaluate a participant’s needs and determine the next steps for the best care. Using OmniScript Dynamic Assessments, set up guided processes that help your team collect information directly from a case, care plan, or other record.

  • Programs: After the intake and assessment process is complete, enroll participants in programs. For help with defining your services and creating program and benefit records, check out the Programs and Benefits in Nonprofit Cloud for Programs module and the related documentation in the Resources section.

Now that we’ve touched upon the process before you get to a case plan, it’s time to discuss care plan templates, an important building block of care plans. 

Discover Care Plan Templates

When you create a care plan for a participant, you can start with a care plan template. Configure care plan templates to include the most common path your participants take toward a goal. When used, they reduce data entry time and standardize your processes.

Care plan templates consist of three elements.

  • Goals track what your participant is working toward, and are divided into top goals and intermediate goals. Think of top goals as the ultimate result, and intermediate goals as smaller steps along the way. For example, if you’re working with a family, you could have a top family goal and individual intermediate goals assigned to each family member.

  • Benefits are the services that participants receive from your organization, such as coaching hours, individual counseling sessions, or food distributions. Benefit records aren’t covered in this module. Check out the Programs and Benefits in Nonprofit Cloud for Programs module and the related documentation in the Resources section for details.

  • Action plan templates are groups of repeatable tasks that can be assigned to program participants or staff members at your organization. Tasks represent the steps a participant completes to achieve a goal, such as enrolling in a class. Tasks can also be assigned to staff members to ensure proper and timely engagement, such as a case worker following up with a participant on a specific schedule.

If you start from a care plan template, you select the goals, benefits, and action plan templates you want to apply to the individual care plan. From there, add custom goals, benefits, and tasks to tailor the plan for a participant’s needs.

After the care plan is created, use the case record and the care plan to follow a participant's progress. Together, these tools track program participation, task completion, and individual interactions until the care plan is complete.

Now that you have a high-level view of how care plans work, learn how to create a care plan template in the next unit.

Resources

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