ADDING PRIMARY AND SECONDARY PARTICIPANTS TO EXISTING FAMILIES
How to use this PDS section: Secondary participants must be connected to an active primary participant in the home visiting program. For secondary participants, programs keep separate records of the parent’s contact information and group involvement in the program. Documentation of a secondary participant’s involvement in home visits and referral offers must be documented within the primary participant’s record.
Why this information is important: Home visiting programs are family-centered and actively try to engage two biological parents or co-parents in services whenever possible. If one of the parents are not eligible or interested in enrolling in services as primary participants then one of the parents may elect to engage in services as a secondary participant.
HFM policies related to this PDS section: Eligibility Policy
There are three sets of instructions in this manual section:
I. Creating a Dual Primary Participant
II. Creating a Secondary Participant
III. Adding an Existing Participant to a Family
Step by Step Instructions
Fields with an asterisk (*) are required
I. Creating a Dual Primary Participant
Participating families may have more than one primary participant enrolled if all parents are eligible to receive HFM services. To add a second primary participant to a family, follow the instructions below.
Go to the profile page of the primary participant who is connected to the new primary participant you want to create.
2. Click New Primary in the existing primary participant’s row.
3. You should see the Intake Form for Primary Participants. Complete this form using the instructions in the Creating a Participant PDS manual section.
II. Creating a New Secondary Participant
Families may include one or more secondary participants on a primary participant’s profile.
1. Go to the profile page of the primary participant who is connected to the secondary participant you want to create.
2. Click New Secondary in the primary participant row.
3. You should now be on the Intake Form for Secondary Participants. Complete the information under “Participant Profile” for the secondary participant:
3.1. *First Name: Enter the participant’s first name.
3.2. Middle Name: Enter the participant’s middle name.
3.3. *Last Name: Enter the participant’s last name.
3.4. Maiden Name (if applicable): Enter the participant’s maiden name.
3.5. *Date of Birth: Enter the participant’s date of birth.
3.6. *Gender: Select the participant’s gender from the dropdown menu:
3.7. Primary Participant: This field will auto populate as No.
3.8. City/Town Residence at Referral: This dropdown menu will automatically display only the cities/towns within your catchment area.
3.8.1 Out of Catchment Area: If the secondary participant lives outside the catchment area for your program, clicking this box will expand the dropdown menu to include all cities in Massachusetts.
3.9. *Assign Site: This will auto populate based on the primary participant’s site.
3.10. Assign Family: This will auto populate based on the primary participant’s family assignment.
3.11. Is Primary to this Family: This field will auto-populate to No. Contact PDS support if you need to edit this field.
3.12. Relationship to this family: Select one of the following from the dropdown menu:
Mother: Select if the secondary participant is the biological mother of the child.
Father: Select if the secondary participant is the biological father of the child.
Non-binary parent: Select if the secondary parent is the non-binary biological parent of the child.
Non-Biological Parent: Select if the secondary participant is the romantic partner of the primary participant.
Other: Select if the secondary participant has another relationship to the family.
3.13. Assign Home Visitor: Select the home visitor assigned to the primary participant.
4. Enter information in the “Consent Requirements” section.
4.1 Consent Signed: This field is greyed out and cannot be edited initially. Once the secondary participant has been created the record can be edited and the program can indicate the consent was signed.
4.2 Signed date: This field is greyed out and cannot be edited initially. Once the secondary participant has been created the record can be indicated and the program can indicate the consent was signed.
4.3 Declined to sign: Check this box if the secondary participant declined to sign the HFM consent form.
4.4 Declined date: Enter the date the secondary participant declined to sign the HFM consent form.
5. Complete information under the “Participant Referral” section for the secondary participant:
5.1 *Referral Date: Enter the date the secondary participant was referred to your HFM program.
5.2. Date of First contact/Enrollment: Select the date the participant was first contacted/enrolled in the program. Upon first contact with the participant via phone or face-to-face interaction, whichever interaction happened first, enter the date of that contact here. 
5.3. *Outcome of Contact
5.4. *Parenting Status at Referral:
5.6. If pregnant, EDC/Estimated Date of Birth: This field will be grayed out and view only.
6. Enter information in the “Referral Source” section. As the instructions show, you can select from an existing referral source or enter information to save a new referral source in PDS.
6.1 *Organization Category: Select the option from the dropdown menu that best describes the referral source for this participant.
Other, specify: Select if the organization category is not listed in the dropdown menu. If you select this option, enter as much information as possible in the remaining fields in the “Referral Source” section (e.g. organization/entity name and referral name/phone).
Inactive options: FIRSTLink and MELD are inactive options and cannot be selected.
6.2 Organization/Entity City Select the Referral Source organization’s city from the drop down menu. If the organization is in a Boston neighborhood, you must select Boston.
6.3 Organization/Entity Name Depending on the organization category and city you select, the organization/entity name may already be saved in PDS. The dropdown menu will populate with previously saved referral sources. Check the dropdown menu to see if the organization/entity name is listed. In the example below, the there are three hospitals already listed in Brockton.
6.3.1 If you do not see the organization/entity name in the drop down menu, you can create a new organization/entity by clicking the green plus sign next to the drop down menu.
You will be able to enter information in the Organization/Entity Name, Division/Department, Referral Contact Name, and Referral Contact Phone fields. Click the yellow arrow button if you want to return to the dropdown menus without entering information.
6.4 Division/Department If you selected an existing organization in step 9.3, you may see a division/department already saved in the dropdown menu. If you see the referral source’s division/department listed, select it. In the example below, there are two departments already listed for one of the hospitals in Brockton.
6.4.1 If you do not see the division/department in the dropdown menu, you can create a new entry by clicking the green plus sign next to the division/department name drop down menu. Follow the instructions in step 9.3.1 to enter information.
6.5 Referral Contact Name If you selected an existing organization, you may see a referral contact name already saved in the Referral Contact Name field. If you see the contact’s name listed, select it. In the example below, there is one referral contact name already saved in PDS.
6.5.1 If you do not see the referral source contact name in the dropdown menu, you can create a new entry by clicking the green plus sign next to the referral contact name drop down menu. This step is not required if you do not have a specific contact at the referring organization. Follow the instructions in step 9.3.1 to enter information.
6.6 Referral Contact Phone If you selected an existing referral contact, a phone number may appear in this box. If a number does not appear or if the contact phone number is out of date, enter a new referral contact number.
7. Save: Select to save the information.
8. Cancel: Select to leave the Profile page without saving.
III. Adding an Existing Participant to a Family
Participants who are already have PDS records may be added to other families in PDS. For example, Alex is enrolled as a primary participant in HFM. Alex’s partner, Sam, is also enrolled in HFM as a participant in another family. In PDS, Alex and Sam’s records are maintained under separate families. If Sam wants to join Alex’s family as a participant, a PDS user can add Sam to Alex’s family without creating a new profile for Sam.
1. Go to the Participant Profile page for the primary participant for the family where you want to add an existing participant. Click Existing Participant on the primary participant’s row.
2. Enter the existing participant’s first and/or last names in the search boxes. You do not need to enter the participant’s entire name to search. In the example below, the user is searching for a sample participant named Referral3 Test. Typing “Ref T” shows Referral3 Test in the search results. This technique may be helpful if you don’t know the exact spelling of the participant’s name. 
2.2 Click Search. 
2.3 Inactive participants will not appear in the search. If you need to add an inactive participant to a family, see Creating a Participant for instructions on re-enrolling a participant who previously received HFM services. Once that person is re-enrolled, you can add him/her to a family.
3. Click Select to add the appropriate person to the family.
4. Select the participant’s relationship to the family by selecting the appropriate choice from the drop down menu.
5. Click Add Participant to Family to add the participant to the family. Click Search Again to search for another participant.
6. If a participant is associated with more than one family, you will see all members of the families listed on the Participant Profile. In the example below, the person named Referral3 is part of two families enrolled in HFM. Referral3 is a Non-Biological Parent in one family and the Mother in another family.
Adding Primary and Secondary Participants to Existing Families (Sept 2019)
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