Help: CWL - Assessment Setup

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.

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Set Up and Start a Caregiver Wish List, or Modify CWL® Setup Info

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

NOTE: You can enter the CWL® 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 CWL® 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".

CWL® 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 CWL® open at one time.

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

In other words: a Client will be able to have up to one Initial CWL® and any number of non-Initial CWL®s (including "Revised Initial" CWL®s) associated with that Episode.

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

NOTE: although many CWL® 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 CWL®s the FAS system itself does not monitor whether or not the actual timeliness or chronology of CWL®s within an Episode matches their Administration settings.

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" CAFAS 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" CAFAS 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.

To start a CWL® after you have entered all setup information, click the Start CWL® button.

Help: CWL® - Assessment Setup

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Set Up and Start a Caregiver Wish List, or Modify CWL® Setup Info