JIFF Interviewer™

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Selecting an administration, an important part of the assessment setup and managing your clients, is also discussed in our Advanced Help guide for supervisors, which has less of a step-by-step emphasis and is more focused on teaching you to get the most out of FAS Outcomes and leveraging the system to optimize client outcomes. If you'd like to read about selecting an administration in the Advanced Help guide, click here.

Have a question about these topics? Ask FAS!

Set Up and Start a Caregiver JIFF®, or Modify JIFF® Setup Info

Enter Client, Caregiver and Assessment information in the fields provided, including:

NOTE: You can enter the JIFF® Date or the Next Assessment Date by clicking on the calendar icon:

The calendar widget will appear, showing the current month and day:

Click the date on the calendar you wish to select.  Click < or > to go back or forward one month, << or >> to go back or forward three months.

For the JIFF® Date you can enter today's date with a single click on "Use Today".

For the Next Assessment Date you can select the date 30, 60 or 90 days from today with a single click on "30 Days", "60 Days" or "90 Days".

JIFF® Administration and a Client's Episodes of Care

In the FAS Outcomes system, Episodes of Care are determined by the Administration value that is chosen during assessment setup. Essentially, each time a new "Initial" assessment is entered, a new Episode of Care is started in the system.  There are, however, some additional details to understand, which are explained below.

A Client's Episodes of Care within a given Measure are strictly sequential: there is never more than one open at one time.

Any Episode will begin and end at the same time for all persons representing a Client (i.e. for the Youth and all the Youth's Caregivers)

What ends one Episode and starts another is when any one person representing a Client starts his or her second "Initial" JIFF® within what would otherwise be the same Episode. That "second" Initial JIFF® will actually become the first JIFF® of the next Episode.

In other words:  during a given Episode, as long as neither the Youth nor any of his or her Caregivers starts a second Initial JIFF®, each of them will be able to have up to one Initial JIFF® and any number of non-Initial JIFF®s (including "Revised Initial" JIFF®s) associated with that Episode.

[There is one relatively unlikely exception: if for some reason a Client's very first JIFF® (whether started by the Youth or a Caregiver) is not labelled "Initial", it will still be treated as an Initial JIFF®, in that it will start the Client's first Episode, and if that same person starts an Initial JIFF after that - during what would otherwise still be the first Episode - that Initial JIFF® will be treated as the second Initial JIFF®, and mark the end of the first Episode and the start of the second one.]

NOTE: although many JIFF® Administration settings are named for exact time intervals and one would expect Assessors to want to employ them accurately, except for the rule on second Initial JIFF®s the FAS system itself does not monitor whether or not the actual timeliness or chronology of JIFF®s within an Episode matches their Administration settings.

The following chronology illustrates the working of the rule, albeit under sometimes anomalous circumstances (Y=Youth, C1-C2=Caregivers, E1-E4=Episodes):

 

ACTION

TO WHICH EPISODE DOES IT BELONG?

1.

Y starts a "Special Circumstances" JIFF®

E1: Client's first JIFF® always starts first Episode, no matter what it's called.  (Of course normally it would be called an "Initial" JIFF®.)

2.

Y starts an Initial JIFF®

E2: A Client's first JIFF® is always treated as an Initial, no matter what it's called, so this Initial JIFF® that follows is treated as Y's second Initial, starting new Episode.

3.

C1 starts an Initial JIFF®

E2: This is the second Initial JIFF® in E2, but it is only the first of C1's Initial JIFF®s in E2.  In any Episode, the first Initial JIFF® associated with any one person representing a Client will not start a new Episode.

4.

C1 starts another Initial JIFF®

E3: This is C1's second Initial JIFF® in what would otherwise still be E2, so it ends E2 and starts E3.

5.

Y starts an "Exit" JIFF®

E3: Only an Initial JIFF® starts a new Episode.  Even though this is called an Exit JIFF®, it is now Y's first JIFF® in E3.

6.

Y starts an Initial JIFF®

E3: This is Y's first Initial JIFF® in E3:  regardless of what other of Y's non-Initial JIFF®s precede or follow it in the Episode, it will not start a new Episode.

7.

C2 starts an Initial JIFF®

E3: This is C2's first Initial JIFF® in E3:  no new Episode started.

8.

C1 starts yet another Initial JIFF®

E4: C1's first Initial JIFF® in E3 was in step 4.  This is her second Initial JIFF® in what would otherwise be the same Episode, so instead it starts E4.

The system may advise you as to what Assessment Administration to select based on the Client's recent Assessment history (i.e. with respect to the current Episode), but will not require that its advice be followed. The system will prompt in the following circumstances:

The system will recommend you create a new assessment with an Administration of "Initial", if:

  • There is no existing Assessment for the case (ever)

  • The previous Assessment was an "Exit" assessment

  • The Case has been inactive since the previous assessment

  • The previous Assessment was done greater than 12 months ago

  • The case has been moved from one Service Area/Program to another since the previous Assessment

The system will recommend you create a new assessment with an Administration of "Revised Initial", if:

  • The previous assessment was an "Initial" and "Initial" is selected again and it has been less than 3 months

Note: "Revised Initial" is used to replace an "Initial" JIFF® if it becomes apparent that the "Initial" was erroneous or misleading. Using the "Revised Initial" maintains an accurate historical record by keeping the "Initial" unmodified while also maintaining a clinician's record by using the "Revised Initial" in place of the "Initial" when generating before and after data, such as outcomes.

A "Revised Initial" cannot be done more than three months after the "Initial" assessment and it cannot be done if another administration is done after the "Initial", i.e. if two months later a "2 Months" JIFF® is done a "Revised Initial" can no longer be done.

Why can't I change the Administration of an Assessment when it is "Initial"?

Episodes are started/ended based on the Initial Assessment.

(NOTE: It is still possible for an Administrator to delete an Initial Assessment, but doing so will not affect the Episodes of Care as they existed before deletion.)

What is the "Special Circumstances" administration for?

You are only allowed to perform any given administration (such as "6 Months") a single time during an episode. "Special Circumstances" is for assessing a youth when he or she has already had an administration (such as "6 Months") and needs another assessment shortly thereafter. "6 Months" cannot be chosen a second time in the same episode, and it is too soon for "7 Months", so you can choose "Special Circumstances" and perform the assessment. Realize that the "Special Circumstances" administration rarely needs to be used as it exists for abnormal situations.

Note: "Special Circumstances" is sometimes used in place of an "Initial" assessment because it has been some time since a client exited services and has a new presenting problem. In this situation, you should choose "Initial" again as the assessment. A new episode will be started, which is appropriate because the client has a new presenting problem and it has been some time since he or she was last in services.

NOTE: You can enter the Next Assessment Date by clicking on the calendar icon:  

The calendar widget will appear, showing the current month and day:

Click the date on the calendar you wish to select.  Click < or > to go back or forward one month, << or >> to go back or forward three months.

You can select the date 30, 60 or 90 days from today with a single click on "30 Days", "60 Days" or "90 Days".

To start a JIFF® when you are done entering setup information, click the Start JIFF button.

All pop-up blockers must be disabled on any machine used to conduct JIFF® interviews.

In order to start a JIFF®, fields on the setup page marked with a red asterisk (*) may not be left blank.

First JIFF® Performance: The first time a JIFF® is administered on a given computer, it will be slightly slower than subsequent JIFF®s conducted on the same computer, because after the first time the JIFF® screens will be cached.

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Troubleshoot: JIFF Interviewer™ Doesn't Appear when "Start JIFF" is Clicked

The JIFF Interviewer™ opens in a new window, so if it isn't displaying the likely cause is that it is getting blocked by your internet browser's pop-up blocker. You'll need to disable the pop-up blocker or add "app.fasoutcomes.com" as an allowed site. Click here if you need additional details for doing this.

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Troubleshoot: No Sound

In addition to being displayed on the screen, the JIFF® questions are also asked orally by the computer.

If you are unable to hear the questions being asked:

  1. Check to make sure that the volume on your computer is not turned down or muted (there is usually a speaker icon in the task bar that can be clicked to show a sliding volume control).

  2. Make sure your computer is equipped with a sound card and speakers (you can usually check this by going to the Control Panel and selecting "Sound").

  3. If all else fails, ask your Administrator for help.

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Troubleshoot: JIFF® Running Really Slowly

If you are using Windows Vista and JIFF® Assessments are running really slowly:

  1. Go to your computer's Control Panel.

  2. Select Sound.

  3. Select the Playback tab.

  4. Select the Playback device (speakers, etc.).

  5. Select Properties.

  6. On the Enhancements tab, there should either be one checkbox labelled Disable All Enhancements, or two checkboxes, one labelled Disable All Sound Effects and the other labelled Immediate Mode.

  7. Check any and all boxes so labelled.

  8. Click Apply.

There should no longer be a lag when running JIFF® Assessments.  If problems persist, ask your Administrator for help.

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