Handling the information of deceased people in a sensitive way is vital for others involved. For example sending an email to a deceased person that then gets read by a family member will seem very insensitive. While you can delete the profile of deceased people, sometimes it's important to keep that profile so that you can tell that a loved one has lost some one close. Here's how to record and view deceased information in UCare.
Profiles
The deceased indicator has clearly been added to the profile page of our example profile Julie. For this indicator to show add a date named Deceased to the profile. It's a date not just yes/no as this allows search groups to be created to find all the spouses and family members near the anniversary of people’s passing. You can then send a card, email or organize a visit with the family.
The email and SMS options for Julie are off, this happens automatically and means she can’t be emailed, if she had an SMS number then the SMS option wouldn’t work either.
Related people
The deceased indicator is clearly displayed in the relationship section of her husband. Also note that Todd, Julie’s husband is no longer listed as married but instead is now listed as a widower.
Also, any search groups that look for married people still includes people whose spouse is deceased. Add a filter to the search group to exclude deceased people and if they are included the deceased indicator will clearly be displayed (see Groups below).
When previewing recipients for an email, deceased people are included but showing that they won't receive the email message. In this example Julie has been included in the recipient list but her name is red and she is listed as deceased so the email won’t be sent to her email address.
Groups
In a group the deceased indicator gets displayed next to a person’s name.
Meetings
For meetings that a deceased person attended, the deceased indicator is displayed next to their name.
But for future meetings Julie’s name isn’t displayed. Your churches will often have volunteers or small group leaders recording attendance, so you don’t want to have people that have recently passed away included in the list as this would be insensitive and possibly distressing to both staff and volunteers. This is the same if it’s an attendance report, deceased people aren't displayed on attendance reports.
Charges
Deceased people are not included when we are counting the total number of active people at your church. As such you wont be charged for them going forward.