Hi All

I have an intake DB that stores a list of children awaiting placement into foster homes. When placed, the kids are removed and put into a child database. The ones that remain eventually move into a "unable to place" mode. Occasionally, these kids are referred to the agency again and need to be moved from the "unable to place mode" to a "remain in intake" mode. What I need to do is create a find feature that will allow a social worker to enter FNAME, LNAME, DOB, and SSN and have the database identify if the child has been in the intake process prior to the current referral. Any ideas on an elegant and user friendly find interface?

Dr. Ken

I would recommend using a separate "transaction" file with a relationship to the main file based on SSN. The transaction file could contain fields for status and fields for date ranges. Then put a portal on the main file so the social worker could see a complete history of that child.

Good Luck, Mike

Dr. Ken,

Don't all the children have to go through the intake process at some point? If you are trying to identify children who are going through the intake process a second time (or more) then it seems like a status field would be the answer. Instead of having to look up the Name, DOB, etc., the social worker could find all the children with a certain status. A pop-up menu might be very handy for this.

The Mad Jammer

And then...there was nothing