Preferences
Preferences are where the actual appearance and functionality of Paua can be changed from agency to agency. There are a large number of options that can be changed. New preferences are being added all the time so this documentation is simply an overview of what is available. There is explanatory text on the preference pages to aid in understanding what they do and how to set them.
The Preference pages are accessed from the Administration menu under Preferences.
There are multiple tabs to cover groups of preferences.
General Preferences
Logo
This is where you can set a custom logo for your organisation. The logo has to have been previously uploaded under Dropdown Maintenance - Logos. Note that logo images should ideally be about 200 pixels wide and 100 pixels high.
Client List Columns
This preference determines the columns that are displayed when listing clients. If nothing is ticked then Paua will display a default list.
Contact List Columns
This preference determines what columns are displayed when contacts are listed. Again, a default set of columns will be displayed if nothing is chosen here.
Limit Person Name change to Admin users
If this checkbox is ticked then names of clients and family members cannot be changed after the record is saved except by admin users. This is an attempt to prevent difficulties where one user changes the name and another user then can’t find the client.
Report durations in hours and minutes
In reports where there is a column for Hours Spent it is displayed as a decimal number of hours. For example 1 Hour and 20 Minutes would be 1.33 Hrs. If you tick this box then all Hours Spent values will be displayed in hours and minutes. The previous example of 1 Hour and 20 Minutes would then be 1:20
Age Range replaces DOB
This is a feature used by some agencies where recording birthdates is not possible or not practical. If this option is ticked then Paua will display a dropdown of Age Ranges rather than a Date of Birth field. The default ranges are 0*5Yrs, 6*10Yrs, 11*13Yrs, 14Yrs and Over but the age ranges can be set to other values as required by your agency.
Maximum number of hours on client contacts
This is a preference to prevent the Hours dropdown in Contacts from becoming unmanageable. The maximum defaults to 9 hours but if your agency has longer sessions than this then the maximum can be set here.
Number of items in paginated lists
Throughout Paua there are lists of records that have a paginator at the bottom. The default number of items in the lists is 12 but this can be changed to a number that you choose with this preference.
Filter contact types by programme
Some agencies have a large number of Contact Types and some of these only apply to certain programmes. If this preference is selected then when you edit Programmes in dropdown maintenance there will be a list of Contact Types and you can tick the ones that apply to the current programme.
Filter goal types by programme
Some agencies have a large number of Goal Types and some of these only apply to certain programmes. If this preference is selected then when you edit Programmes in dropdown maintenance there will be a list of Goal Types and you can tick the ones that apply to the current programme.
Filter optional fields by programme
Some agencies have a large number of Optional Fields and some of these only apply to certain programmes. If this preference is selected then when you edit Programmes in dropdown maintenance there will be a list of Optional Fields and you can tick any that you want to suppress for the current programme.
Warning
If this option is selected then Paua will not know which optional fields are available for a client until the client is assigned a programme. This means that when you initially create the client there will be no optional fields, but after the record is saved and re-edited the relevant optional fields will be available.
Note
Suppression of optional fields only applies to fields directly on the client record and not to Person Details as one person may have several client engagements in different programmes.
Required fields by programme
If you have fields that you only want to be mandatory for certain programmes you can set up this ‘Required Fields By Programme’ option. If this box is checked then for each programme you will be able (under dropdowns maintenance) to specify required fields for the specific programme. Note that if the field is specified as mandatory at agency level then it will be mandatory for all programmes. ie. if the field is wanted to not be mandatory for some programmes then you need to remove it from the global list and add it at programme level to all programmes for which it is required.
Prevent Contacts after exit
The check box Prevent Contacts after exit is self explanatory and can be set to enforce data integrity especially if you are exporting to PRIMHD when activities after the client exit date will be rejected.
Login and Security
Password reset interval
By default Paua users never have to change their passwords. If a number is entered in this preference then after that number of days from a previous password change a user will be forced to change their password again.
Session Timeout in Minutes
The default timeout of sessions in Paua is 120 minutes. If you wish change that, you can enter the desired number of minutes timeout here. For example a setting of 30 will mean that your users will be forced to re login after 30 minutes of inactivity.
Enable Optional Features
This gives a list of optional features that can be enabled for your agency by ticking the boxes.
Enable Family Module
Family module enables clients to be treated as family groups with one Primary Family Client and multiple Subsidiary Family Clients When clients are grouped in this way all client contacts, issues, outcomes etc are applied once to the Primary client so that all data is in one easy to find location.
Enable Programme Transfers
If a client changes from one programme to another it is usually best in Paua to exit the client from the first programme and then create a new client engagement in the new programme. However, if the client is entered into the incorrect programme, you may want to just transfer them to the correct one. This is not possible in the normal way in Paua as the programme cannot be changed. If the Transfer option is enabled then it is possible to change the programme but a record is kept of the change.
Enable Standard Forms
Standard Forms are industry standard questionnaires that have been designed to assess health and wellbeing, including addiction.
ADOM Alcohol and Drug Outcome Measurement
SACS Substance and Choices Scale
HoNOSCA; HoNOS; HoNOS65+ Health of the Nation Outcome Scales
KESSLER Kessler psychological distress scale
MAST-G Michigan Alcohol Screening test
Edinburgh Depression Scale
WHOQOL World Health Organisation measuring Quality of Life
SWEMWBS Short version of Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale
AUDIT Assessment Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test
Enable Corrections Information
If this is selected then you will be able to add a client’s prisoner number to their record. You can also enter the sentence type and start and end dates.
Enable Interim Referrals
There is an optional field in Paua for Referral To. This is sometimes not enough if a client is referred to multiple different agencies.
The Interim Referrals option enables a lookup called Interim Referrals that can be populated under dropdown maintenance and a new tab on the client page for Interim Referrals where you can enter as many referrals as you need.
You can seach by Interim Referral and you can run Stats Breakdown by Interim Referral. Interim Referral is also an available column to add to Client Listing User Defined reports.
Enable Non Client Groups
If you run groups for people who are not clients you can choose to run Non Client Groups. This is useful for education events for example.
Enable Onward Referral Monitoring
This option adds several extra date fields to the main client details page to capture the date that a client was referred on to another provider and when that provider first sees the referred client. It is then possible to do a Stats Breakdown by Onward Referral Time
Enable Online Backups
If online backups are enabled then a nightly backup of your agency’s data will be available to download from the Administration sub menu.
Note
These backups are in addition to normal database and server backups which are managed by Paua Software. They are only for peace of mind and are in no way essential.
Enable Form Letters
You can upload letters that are regularly used, for example an acknowledgement of referral. Then when they are selected on the client page, their details will be automatically inserted for you to print out.
Enable Auto Reminders
It is possible to have an auto reminder attached to a client record. These will be automatically generated when a client is activated. You can set when you want the interval of the reminder to be as well as the text. This feature can be turned off at Programme Level. These are always deleted when the client is exited.
Delete Reminders on Exit
If you want to automatically delete manual reminders, check this box and when the client is exited the manual reminders will be deleted.
Suppress Standard Features
This gives a list of standard features in Paua that some agencies may not want and hence they can be suppressed by ticking the corresponding boxes.
Client Notes
Client notes are just free text notes which can be added against the client record. Some agencies suppress the client notes preferring all notes to be recorded as Client Contacts which contain more data attributes and are analysed in some reports.
Calendar
The Paua calendar is a relatively simple calendar intended for booking resources such as meeting rooms and worker time. If your agency already uses a full featured calendar such as Outlook then you will probably want to suppress the Paua calendar.
Group Module
The group module records group sessions that are run by the agency along with group members and attendance. Not all agencies run group sessions and hence the ability to suppress the entire group module.
User Defined Forms
User defined forms provide a customised template for entering user data. However the user defined forms do not form part of Paua reporting and for analysis and reporting Client Assessments are a more powerful tool.
Enquiries Module
This module is for recording and analysing enquiries to the agency in order to see if you are meeting the needs of the public. Not all agencies choose to use this module.
Evaluation Forms
Evaluation forms are user defined survey type forms which are submitted anonymously be your clients as evaluations of there experiences with the agency.
Client Assessments
Client assessments are user defined questionnaires with questions that all have numeric answers on a scale of one to ten. This makes them simple to analyse both to measure individual progress after answering the questionnaire at different stages of the client engagement and also for analysing trends across a cohort of clients.
Client Evaluations
Client evaluations are similar to Client Assessments except that the questions can include selecting options from a list or specifying degree of agreement with a statement etc.
Client Properties
Client properties are a series of check boxes that appear on a separate tab on the client record. They are set up by the user and are designed to hold ‘yes/no’ type information about the client eg. Pregnant?, Unemployed? etc. Client properties are one of the attributes by which a Stats Breakdown can be broken down.
Case Note Security
Access rights to client data in Paua is determined here.
There are primarily three access settings that can be used.
Default level - full access to everyone
Case note security by programme - each user has access to client case notes in specified programmes
Only owner can see case notes - Only the client’s worker and secondary worker (if specified) can access the client’s case notes.
If you choose Case note security by programme then when accessing a user record in the Administration module there will be a list of programmes displayed and you tick the ones that the user is permitted to see.
Note
If you use Case note security by programme and then add a new programme to the system then you will find that none of the users has access to the new programme and you will have to go through and grant access to the users who require access.
In addition to the three levels specified there is a checkbox Supervisor can see all case notes. This setting overrides the access level for supervisor level users enabling them to see all case notes.
By default the access level applies only to case notes (Contacts). However there are two checkboxes that enable the access level to be applied to both attachments and general notes. ie. if the user does not have access to the case notes then they will not have access to the attachments etc.
Finally there is the option of applying the case note security to the entire client record. If this option is selected then a user without access to the case notes will not have access to any of the client data. Note that the client will appear in search lists etc. but the user will not be able to click and bring up the client details.
Optional Fields
Optional fields are fields that are available in Paua but are not necessarily enabled. Most but not all of these fields are dropdown lists. If they are these will need to be edited in Administration module under Dropdown Maintenance.
Client Fields
These fields if enabled all appear on the main client page as dropdowns. The values can be entered into the dropdowns in the Administration module under Dropdown Maintenance.
Person Fields
These fields appear on the Person Details page and are all dropdown lists.
Contact Fields
Travel Time and Admin Time are fields consisting of hours and minutes. Travel Kilometers is an editable field for entering how many kilometers were travelled for the contact, otherwise fields are dropdowns. Fields appear on the Client Contacts/Case Notes page. It is possible to group contact types
Group Fields
Fields associated with items in the Groups Module
Client Issue Fields
This section is just for the Issue Type field that can be used as a super category of Issue
User Fields
If these are selected, they will enable dropdown fields in the user profile.
Mandatory Fields
Some Paua fields are always mandatory for the data integrity of the system. However some agencies may want additional mandatory fields ticking any of the Mandatory Fields checkboxes will make the corresponding field mandatory in the application.
Mandatory Fields at Exit
Selecting one of these fields will mean that although you can save a client without filling in the field you will not be able to exit the client.
Iwi Mandatory for Maori Clients
If this checkbox is ticked then the system will insist on an Iwi being entered for anybody with Maori Ethnicity.
Suppressed Fields
Unused fields can clutter up your page and some agencies do not require certain information. Ticking one of these boxes will mean that the field no longer appears in Paua.
Restricted Reports
You can block access to basic level users to reports on this page.
The page shows a list of just about all the reports that are available in the system with a checkbox next to each one. If you check the box against one of the reports then that report will not be visible to basic users of Paua. In other words in order to run that report you must be a Supervisor or Admin type user.
Temporary Settings
Settings here are intended to be, as the name suggests, used just for the duration of your current login session. They will automatically revert to default the next time you login.
Allow inactive values in dropdowns
If this checkbox is set then throughout Paua inactive values which are normally hidden in dropdowns will be displayed and become useable. This is useful when running retrospective reports where you need perhaps to select a report based on an inactive user or programme.
Family Module Preferences
By default when the family module is enabled, only some basic information is able to be collected. This is where you set tabs for extra information collected from subsidiary family clients.