Whānau groups
Manaaki Central groups people into whānau groups so you can see who belongs together and move between their records.
A whānau group records who is in the group. It does not record how people are related to one another — there is no parent, sibling or caregiver relationship stored between two members.
If you are looking for where to record that somebody is a grandmother rather than an aunt, it is not here. The nearest thing is the free-text relationship field on a support network contact.
The two flags on a member
Every member carries two flags, and the difference between them causes more confusion than anything else in this part of the system:
- Primary contact — marks the main point of contact for the whānau group. One person per group.
- Service user — whether this person is themself receiving services, with their own record and Referral history.
A member who is not a service user appears as plain text rather than a link, because they have no record of their own to open yet. They can be promoted to one later, and starting a Referral for them will prompt exactly that.
There is a third toggle, Keep in sync with Support Contacts, available only for non-service-user members. Turning it on also lists that person in the Service User's support contacts, so you do not have to enter them twice.
Why a person can appear twice
Support contacts and whānau members are separate lists serving different purposes: the whānau group is about who this person belongs with, the support network is about who is involved in their care. Somebody can legitimately be in both, which is what the sync toggle is for.
Where to go next
- Family relationships — adding, editing and removing members, and starting a Referral for one
- Viewing client details — where the Whānau tab lives
- Glossary — every term in one list