Met and Unmet Needs by Taxonomy

Met and Unmet Needs by Taxonomy

How to document Needs by Taxonomy

In iCarol when making a referral in a call report, and when using the AIRS taxonomy, you have the following options for how you can make referrals to Resources and Needs, which are as follows:
  1. Make a referral to a Met Need directly associated to a Resource 
  2. Make a referral to an Unmet Need directly associated to a Resource, or make a referral to the Unmet Need by itself (not associated to any Resource)
When making referrals to Resources and Needs Taxonomy, the following are some important notes to keep in mind:
  1. you can save as many or as few met or unmet needs in a call report, and both met and unmet needs can be recorded in the same call report
  2. only active Taxonomy terms in your Taxonomy Customization are available for inclusion as Terms Searched, or as a Need. This means inactive taxonomy terms will not appear in the Terms Searched box, and therefore, can’t be marked as Needs
  3. referrals to Out of Database resources can be saved with a met or unmet Need
  4. you can customize the list of ‘unmet needs’ to best suit your organization, which is described in more detail below
When making referrals to Resources and Needs, the following steps need to be taken for both 'Met' and 'Unmet' Needs:
  1. From within a call report, click 'Search Resources' at the top of the page
  2. For best results, search by Taxonomy because whatever Taxonomy term you search for will automatically be selected in the resource record when you choose to view the details of it (but you can also search by Resources or Categories if you wish)
  3. Select the name/details of the resource you wish to make a referral to so you can view the details of the record
  4. Read through the information in the resource record and decide if this is the referral you want to provide; if not, click the link to go back and continue searching for resources. If this is the referral you want to provide, continue to the next step
  5. At the top of the page, next to the 'Make Referral' button, click the link 'Choose terms best describing the need for this referral' and notice the Taxonomy term you searched for (if you searched by Taxonomy) is pre-selected as the need for this referral. Select the checkboxes for any other Taxonomy terms that you wish to save as a Need for this contact
  6. After you have your Needs selected, click the 'Maker referral' button
  7. If you don't see the 'Make Referral' button, it is likely because you are viewing a level of the resource that you can't make referrals to. Most organizations make referrals to the Program level record, which can be found at the bottom of the page when viewing an Agency, Site, or other Program record. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and select the name of a Program record, and the 'Make Referral' button should appear
  8. Complete these steps as many times as necessary until all referrals have been made (or come back to this window throughout the interaction as much as needed)
  9. After making a referral, go to the Resources tab in your call report (note your organization may have renamed this tab) that displays the Referrals Made table at the top of the page indicating the Needs associated with each referral, and whether the Need is Met or Unmet.
    1. By default, notice all Needs are marked as Met and can be adjusted accordingly.
    2. Also notice, if you have made referrals to multiple Resources with multiple Needs, only some check boxes may be selected. When a checkbox is selected, it associates a given Need to a Resource. If a checkbox is not selected, no association will be made between the given Resource and Need. By default, the check boxes selected relate directly to the term(s) you chose best describing the needs for the referral. It is important to review the check boxes selected for each Resource/Referral to ensure accuracy for reporting. 
  10. At the bottom of the page there is a list of all referrals made in this call report. If your organization has enabled the features to send referrals by Email or SMS/Text, this area is used to designate where the email or text messages should be sent. 
  11. Additional steps are needed when documenting Unmet Needs, which are outlined in the help article linked at the beginning of this help article
Read this related help article to learn how to customize your organization's list of Unmet Needs, and the different types of Unmet Needs you can save.

How to document Unmet Needs by Taxonomy

In iCarol when making a referral in a call report, and when using the AIRS taxonomy, you have 2 options for how you can document unmet needs, which are as follows:
  1. Save an unmet need directly associated to a referral
  2. Save an unmet need not associated to a referral
Your organization should review the following options and determine which one is best for you based on your reporting needs, using the information below:

Option 1: Save an unmet need not associated to a referral

To save an unmet need not associated to a referral complete the following steps:
  1. From within a call report, search for a resource by Taxonomy
  2. After you search for a resource by Taxonomy, to the left of the Geographic Filters, a new box named ‘Terms Searched’ appears.
    1. This box will contain all the Taxonomy Terms you have searched for in this call report. By default, a blue plus sign appears to the left of the Taxonomy Terms.
  3. In the Terms Searched box, click the plus sign for the taxonomy term you wish to mark as an unmet need. The plus sign will turn to a green check mark, indicating the taxonomy term is marked as an identified need, and that it has been added to the call report
  4. Close out of the Search Resources window, and go to the Resources area (tab) of the call report
  5. In the table showing the referrals and needs you’ve saved in this call report, you will see the Taxonomy terms that appeared with a green check mark in the Terms Searched box in the Search Resources window appear here.
  6. In the table showing the referrals and needs you’ve saved in this call report, under ‘Met/Unmet’ find the need you just added to the call. From the drop-down list currently displaying ‘Need met’, select any other option in this list to associated the referral with an ‘unmet’ need
  7. Finish documenting the rest of your call report and click ‘Submit’
Saving an unmet need not associated to a referral will make data for the call report appear in the following chart in the Analysis area of Statistics:
  1. Caller needs by taxonomy
  2. Unmet needs by taxonomy with reasons
  3. Unmet needs by location
  4. AIRS problems needs

Option 2: Save an unmet need directly associated to a referral

To save an unmet need directly associated to a referral, complete the following steps:
  1. From within a call report, search for referrals (for this option, it doesn’t matter how you search), and save a referral as you would for a ‘Met Need’
  2. Close out of the Search Resources window, and go to the Resources area (tab) of the call report
  3. In the table showing the referrals and needs you’ve saved in this call report, under ‘Met/Unmet’ from the drop-down list currently displaying ‘Need met’, select any other option in this list to associated the referral with an ‘unmet’ need
    1. Note, if you saved a referral to multiple needs for this resource, you need to designate each need as met or unmet depending on the outcome of your interaction
  4. Finish documenting the rest of your call report and click ‘Submit’
Saving an unmet need directly to a referral will make data for the call report appear in the following charts in the Analysis area of Statistics:
  1. Caller needs by taxonomy
  2. Caller needs by taxonomy and agency
  3. Caller needs by taxonomy, agency and program
  4. Unmet needs by taxonomy with reasons
  5. Unmet needs by location
  6. AIRS problems needs

Enable Saving Met and Unmet Needs by Taxonomy in Contact Records

After you subscribe to iCarol AIRS Taxonomy Tools, you may wish to enable the ability to save met and unmet needs to referrals, which allows you to report on this valuable data to your funders and stakeholders. To enable this setting, completing the following steps:
  1. Access the Overall Settings page for the Contact Form Version you wish to edit
  2. Under the Resources section, select the checkbox next to 'Needs by Taxonomy: For Orgs using 2-1-1 Taxonomy, specify needs (met/unmet) via Taxonomy'
  3. Under the Resources section, select the checkbox next to 'If using Needs by Taxonomy above, require at least one Need on all contact records unless an exemption field is selected.' - this means unless a field is chosen in the contact record with the setting enabled 'If selected, all required fields are not required' (ex. hangup, prank call, etc.), then a met or unmet need will be required
  4. Click the 'Save Settings' button at the bottom of the page
  5. After you save the changes, when making referrals to resources categorized with a Taxonomy term, you'll see a link new to the 'Make Referral' button to 'Choose terms best describing the need for this referral', as described in detail above

Customize your list of Unmet Needs

By default a list of unmet needs exists in your iCarol system. If you wish to personalize this list by adding or removing any items, complete the following steps:
  1. Access the Overall Settings page for the Contact Form Version you wish to edit
  2. Under the Resources section, click the link to 'Edit Unmet Need Reason List'
  3. The page reload with tools to customize your Unmet Need Reason List
  4. To add new reasons to the list, click the 'Create New' link at the top of the page and a new page will load where you enter the name of the reason, the 'Order in Lists'  to control where the reason appears in the list, and click 'Save'
  5. Click the 'Edit' or 'Delete' links to update existing reasons
  6. Once you're finished customizing your list of Unmet Need Reason List, click the 'Overall settings for this call report form' link at the top of the page and the Overall Settings page will reload
  7. Make sure the 'Needs by Taxonomy: For Orgs using 2-1-1 Taxonomy, specify needs (met/unmet) via Taxonomy' setting is selected, finish making any changes to the settings on this page, and click the 'Save Settings' button at the bottom of the page 
  8. After you save the changes, when making referrals to resources with a need in your contact records, you'll be able to leave the default 'Need was met' reason selected, or select any of the custom Unmet Need Reasons from the list, as described in the steps above
Important Note: If your organization is currently using the Default Unmet Need Reason List, and if you wish to customize your list Unmet Need Reason List, you'll need to add any of the default choices you wish to continue using. The Default Unmet Need Reasons are listed below; if your organization currently uses any of the following Unmet Need Reasons when documenting referrals in contacts, and wishes to continue using them after adding any custom Unmet Need Reasons, then they'll need to be added using the steps above: Need was met, Agency full, waiting list, Client ineligible for services, No financial assistance available, No program found to meet need, Agency resources depleted, Caller refused referral, No agency open at this time, No transportation, Client has used all available services, Client cannot afford the services, Client withdrew, Unable to contact client, Other.

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