Familynet Academy

Familynet is a valuable means of communicating around someone who needs care or help. A mother or father in a care institution, for example. Care providers and family can exchange information quickly and easily on a secured website. This way, everyone is aware of activities and specific questions. Yet Familynet is also extremely suitable for sharing memories, e.g. by means of the Lifebook.

Exchanging information provides for increased involvement. And increased involvement provides for better care. Providing care is a joint effort.

Familynet Academy leads you through the main functions of Familynet, thereby ensuring that you will soon get to grips with it. In addition, you will find support information and materials to give you a head start with Familynet within your organisation.

If you want to read up about the history of Familynet, click here.

Using Familynet starts with setting up your own Familynet domain. This only takes a minute or so.

1. Log in at Familynet. To do so, go to www.familienet.nl/login
2. Complete the profile page of your care institution. For this, go to Menu > Manage care institution. Enter the requested information, upload a logo and cover image.
3. Add departments. For this, go to Menu > Manage care institution. This enables you to class professionals and clients.

Adjusting additional settings
You can make many more adjustments within Familynet. These options can all be found under Menu > Manage care institution. You can, for example, adjust the settings for adding videos, create a forum or adjust the standard message as part of an invitation.

Of course you want to provide all professionals who are going to work with Familynet with an extensive introduction to all its possibilities. We like to help you on your way. Some valuable tools are listed below.

Giving a presentation about Familynet
We prepared a presentation about the purpose and main functionalities within Familynet. You can download this PowerPoint presentation here and show it to your professionals.

Sending a letter or email
You can also notify the professionals by letter, email or a message on your Intranet. A standard text has been formulated for you below. You can of course change this as you see fit.

Email or letter to professionals:

Notifying the families involved is an important step in order to be able to make effective use of Familynet. We advise you to do this before the family members receive an invitation. We also have handy tools for family aimed at providing the correct information.

Giving a presentation about Familynet
The advantage of a presentation is that it is personal and any questions can be dealt with there and then. We have a presentation ready for you to use. You can download this PowerPoint presentation here and show it to family.

This also gives you the opportunity to hand out any flyers and registration forms.

Sending a letter or email
You can also notify the family by letter or email. A standard text has been formulated for you below. You can of course change this as you see fit.

Email or letter to family:

After you have notified the professionals, you can provide them with access to Familynet. Read on to find out how.

Invite professionals
You can easily send invitations from your Familynet environment.

Go to Menu > Professionals. Now click on New professional and enter the data.

The relevant professional will receive an invitation by email to create an account. After the account has been created, the professional automatically receives an email with instructions and additional information on the use of Familynet.

Note: only professionals of user type Familynet Manager and Professional+ can add new professionals. Further information about user types is set out below.

User types
Familynet distinguishes various user types. Each user type offers specific options. This provides structure and overview.

Below you can view an overview of user types in care institutions:

Now that the family has also been fully informed of Familynet and professionals have access, you can start inviting families who have submitted their registration forms. You can do this by creating a page for the client.

Creating pages for clients
Creating a page for a client is easy. The corresponding steps are set out below.

Go to Menu > Clients. Now click on New client. Enter the requested information.

The First contact person of the client in question automatically receives an invitation by email and can also create an account. After the account has been created, the family member automatically receives an email with further instructions and additional information.

Only professionals of user type Familynet Manager and Professional+ can create pages for clients.

Inviting family
Inviting other family members for the client page can be done on the Members' page. You can access this page by clicking on Members at the top of the page. Here you can find a button New family member.

Only the First contact person (this is the client or another family member) can invite family members.

After having invited professionals and creating pages, we have reached the most important and enjoyable part of Familynet: posting messages! By posting messages, all users of a page can exchange important information.

Posting messages
1. Click on the name or picture of a client on the Clients page to go to the page of a client.
2. You can now write a message at the top of the Messages page.

All family members will now receive an email with a notification that a message has been posted. Professionals regularly receive a summary of all activities on Familynet. The frequency at which this summary is emailed depends on the chosen settings.

Adding attachments
Do you wish to add an attachment to a message? You can select from: pictures, videos and documents.

1. Write a message at the top of the Messages page
2. Click on the icon to add a picture, video or document.

Target group selection: who is the message intended for?
You can choose who exactly is authorised to view each message. You can select from the following options:

• All members - the message can be viewed by all members of the page.
• Family - the message can be viewed by family. Only family can select this option.
• First contact person - the message can be viewed by the First contact person. Only the Familynet Manager and the Professional+ can select this option.

Posting responses
Do you want to respond to a message? You can! Write your response in the box below the message you want to respond to. Start at: Write your message here....

Need inspiration?
What messages are regarded as fun and suitable for sharing on Familynet? You can find suggestions and tips in chapter 11: Tips for writing messages.

A useful functionality within Familynet is the Calendar, where professionals and family add appointments.

Adding appointments
Do you want to add an appointment?

1. Go to Menu > Calendar and click on New appointment.
2. Enter the details and click on Make appointment.

Overview of all appointments
Do you want to view an overview of all appointments of your clients? You can find this in your Calendar under Menu.

In order to view the calendar of a specific client, go to the personal page of this client first and subsequently his or her calendar.

Appointments for multiple clients
You can also add an appointment for multiple clients simultaneously. You can find this option when making a new appointment.

Notifications from the calendar
Professionals and family are kept informed of appointments by email. The frequency depends on the chosen settings.

Do you want to post a message to multiple clients simultaneously? If so, select to post a Group Message. This is handy if e.g. you want to announce a joint activity or distribute a newsletter.

Posting Group Messages
This is how to post a Group Message:

1. Go to Menu > Group Message.
2. Write the message.
3. Select the clients you want to post the message to.
4. Add any attachments.
5. Click on Post Group Message.

The Forum enables families of clients to also communicate between themselves. By default, this option is disabled. Do you want to start using the Forum? Complete the following steps:

Enabling the Forum
Note: Only the Familynet Manager at your care institution can enable the Forum.

1. Go to Menu > Manage care institution.
2. Click on Forum
3. Select the departments you want to enable the Forum for.

Do you want to disable the Forum? Simply complete the above steps once more.

Starting a new thread
Starting a new thread is easy. Complete the following steps:

1. Go to Menu > Forum.
2. Click on New Thread.

What do you use the Forum for?
On the Forum, families and professionals can start threads. Subsequently, anyone within the department can respond to this. Use the Forum, for example, to organise a joint day out or to share pictures of a joint activity.

The difference between the Forum and a Group Message
The threads, as well as the responses on the Forum are visible to all. In the event of a Group Message, the responses are only visible to people with access to the relevant client page.

In other words: the Forum is mainly used for contact between families within the department.

You can change personal settings in your Familynet account. For example, your profile picture, your email address or notification preferences.

Changing your profile
Do you want to change parts of your profile? If so, follow the steps below:

1. Click on your name or picture in the navigation bar at the top of the screen.
2. Go to the heading Settings.
3. Change your name, profile picture and a brief description of yourself.

Changing settings
Other settings, such as email address, password and notification preferences can also be changed on the Settings page.

Writing messages can be quite difficult at times. How do you write a proper message and what type of messages can you post on Familynet? This chapter provides a number of tips and suggestions.

Tips for writing messages

• Opt for messages that are brief and to the point. This ensures that the message is better understood. Multiple messages are preferred over one long message.
• Avoid jargon. Not all families are familiar with the terms that are quite common for care workers. Therefore, opt for plain language.
• Make it personal. There are of course also functional messages, yet family members highly appreciate it if personal bits of news are shared. For example, what a client has been up to that day or a funny anecdote.
• Ask a question. Asking questions is effective in order to increase family involvement. Ask for additional information about the client or make a request to participate in an activity or to bring something along.
• Do not post messages too frequently. Do not try and inundate family members with messages.
• Yet make sure to post regularly! Familynet is most effective if used with a certain degree of regularity. Therefore, try and post something each week. Opt for an even spread rather than several messages on one day followed by weeks of silence.
• Opt for pictures and video: pictures and video complement Familynet. And posting a picture or video is as easy as pie. We can often see more interaction when posting pictures and video, compared to text alone.

Example of messages
For example, use Familynet to share a message about the music afternoon, a stroll, cooking together or another activity. Personal messages about the well-being of a client are also highly appreciated by the family.

Some examples:

“Today we went out for a walk with the whole group. Frieda absolutely loved it. She chatted away with Ms Jones and afterwards they enjoyed a cup of tomato soup. It was a lovely afternoon!”

“What would be a real treat for Frieda? Since it is her birthday next week, we would like to get her something special. Is there anything special that she would really like?”

“On 23 March, we want to prepare the vegetable garden for spring and involve the entire department. We could do with some help and we think it would be great if you, as a family, could join us. We are going to make it a fun afternoon and have a meal together afterwards. Who will come and help us?”

“Dear family, Frieda more and more talks about her old home and corresponding garden. Do any of you still have any pictures of this? I think she would really like this! You can upload them here, so I can show them right away! Thank you so much!”

“Dear family, can any of you perhaps bring warm socks for Frieda? The pairs she has are worn out. She is a size 5. Thanks very much!”

If your client leaves your care institution or passes away, keeping the Familynet page active is often not desired. There are various options in this case.

You can either have a Familynet page removed or archived. When archiving a page, all information remains available to the family, yet the professional can no longer see the page in the overview.

When removing a page, all information is permanently deleted for all members of the page.

Consult the family
You can post a message on the page in order to contact the family. This is when you can indicate your intention to archive the page and when you intend to remove the page altogether.

Archiving or removing pages
The Professional+ can move a page to the archive. In that case, the family still has access to the page, yet professionals can no longer see the page and do not receive any notifications in relation to it.

On the Familynet page, click on Manage page and go to Archive. Finally, click on Archive page.

The Familynet Manager at the care institution and the First contact person can remove the page. On the Familynet page, click on Manage page and go to Remove page. Follow the instructions and, finally, click on Remove page.

Announcing that your care institution uses Familynet to maintain contact with the family is a joyous moment. Share it with your followers on social media or the visitors of your website. This chapter will list a number of tools for this.

Familynet on your website
You can use the text below or change it according to preference. We also have some images for you.

Text for your website:

Familynet on your social media
Do you want to share the fact that you use Familynet on Facebook? If so, you can use the text below or change it according to preference. We have also added some suitable images. You are of course free to add your own pictures.

Text for Facebook:

Do you need help in using Familynet? Familynet offers a comprehensive Help feature. You can access it by clicking on your name (top right) and opening your personal menu. Now click on Help. Here you will find the answers to frequently asked questions about Familynet, as well as our contact details.