Welcome to HIFIS 4.0!

My name is Katie VanKoughnet, I’m the Manager of Knowledge Mobilization at End Homelessness St. John’s, and I am delighted to welcome you to your HIFIS 4.0 training!

You may be familiar with HIFIS 3.8, or with another database system, or perhaps this is the first time you will be using a homelessness management information system (HMIS) at all. Whatever your current experience is, we now have a very exciting opportunity to have our whole community in St. John’s using the same single data system that will help us all, especially the clients we serve through Coordinated Access to Homes.

What is HIFIS 4.0? How is it different from past versions of HIFIS?

HIFIS stands for Homeless Individuals and Families Information System. It is the HMIS that the Government of Canada provides. It is a database and record system used to keep track of who is experiencing homelessness and track their shelter stays and agency interactions, the development of their case, and their journey through the system, among many other things. Past versions of HIFIS do this at an agency level: storing information for one agency, on desktop software that the Government of Canada grants permission to install on a workplace computer. The most important change with HIFIS 4.0 is that it is no longer for only one agency at a time – it is made for agencies to use in collaboration across a community. It will still be used on an agency basis and includes everything you need to manage your caseload within your own agency, just like before, but now you will be able to see important updates on your clients from other agencies working with those clients as well. The second most important change is that HIFIS 4.0 is web-based, so you will access it in a browser like any other website. This means you no longer need to do software updates! There are many other smaller updates within the HIFIS platform that you will discover soon.

Why does it matter?

Many people in our community who access services don’t go to just one place. A client might be in the systems of two, three, four or more different agencies in the community. All those agencies are working to get the information they need and serve the client best, and they all hold pieces of the puzzle that others may be missing. With HIFIS 4.0, each client has one record in the community, and everyone who works with that client contributes to their single file. HIFIS 4.0 will reduce duplication, ensuring staff can learn key client information more efficiently, and clients can have their needs quickly and better understood without having to answer the same questions and divulge the same information at every different agency they visit. For clients, this means a more accurate record, and a more equitable and less retraumatizing system. It also means that we as a community will have a far better understanding of how many people are experiencing homelessness, what their journeys through the system really look like, and how interconnected the many agencies in St. John’s are when helping clients. A more accurate picture of each client, agency, and of our community as a whole will allow us all to make smarter decisions about planning and resources, and to better advocate and communicate our work to others. We cannot end homelessness without strong coordinated access, and a shared, community-wide client database is critical to an effective Coordinated Access to Homes system.

How will it impact me and my job?

At first it may be a little harder, but soon we hope HIFIS 4.0 will make your job much easier. This training is the first step. Once you begin using the system, you and your agency will have to transition from the system you were using before into HIFIS 4.0 and enter the clients you work with into HIFIS 4.0 – for Phase 1, this is only necessary for shelter functions with shelter stayers. In Phase 2, we will add case management into HIFIS. Once your client base is in there, we hope you will find it to be a more user- friendly, streamlined system that will help you to keep track of clients’ information, history, updates, and progress. It will also mean that you will be constantly collaborating with other agencies, without having to reach out directly for small essential bits of information. If a client comes to you, but has already been to another agency in town, they should already have a client file created for them, which means you don’t need to start from scratch! You will only have access to information that you need to do your job, and no case information will be shared outside your agency, so clients’ data is only seen by those who need to see it.

How does HIFIS protect the data of clients, and what role do I play in data privacy?

As a community, it is important that we take data privacy very seriously. Client information is not to be accessed or shared by anyone who does not have a legitimate business reason to access or share it. There are several measures in place to ensure client data is protected, from the security systems of the servers to the back-end design and of our community’s site. There are also measures at the user level, including an oath that each user must understand and sign, the completion of this training to ensure you know how to use the system properly, and regular audits of user activity, files opened, and times and locations of sign-in. If you are found to be accessing information that you do not have a critical work reason to access, sharing information with others who do not have a need or permission to access it, sharing passwords, or using HIFIS 4.0 in an inappropriate situation, we are able to detect that. The consequences will be significant and your HIFIS user account will be suspended. You are not to be curious or nosy about any client who you do not serve. We work in service of the clients in our community, and it is incumbent upon each of us to treat every client’s information with discretion, respect, and integrity.

We are all at the beginning of this exciting process, and when we start, it will not be perfect. As you begin with this new system, we hope you will take note of issues or gaps and inform your supervisor so that we can fix them and keep customizing. The goal is for HIFIS 4.0 to work seamlessly for those who use it, and we will need the expertise of users like you to help us get there. The training you are about to complete will help you learn what the system can do, and will mention many opportunities for customization and community or agency- level decisions. Much of that customization and decision- making has already taken place, but there is more to come. Where decisions have been made, there are notes in this training below the lesson video that state what our community has decided. We plan to keep improving the system as we learn what needs to change. If you have trouble and need help with HIFIS, you can seek answers from the Help Desk, revisit this training, or ask your supervisor. If your issue goes beyond those options, your supervisor may direct you to the system administrators at End Homelessness St. John’s who can help you as well.

This is a huge step for our community that has been many years in the making, and we are excited to have you on board! Thank you for your patience, and your commitment to serving the members of our community through Coordinated Access using HIFIS 4.0!