Family updates let your center share the day with the people involved in a member's care — without adding a separate communication chore. Updates draw on what staff have already recorded, and they go only to contacts the center has authorized.
Who receives updates
Updates are sent to the authorized contacts listed on the member's profile, and no one else. That list is under your center's control: you decide who is authorized, following your own privacy policy, consent process, and any applicable state rules. When a family situation changes, update the profile first — see Members and care plans.
What a good update includes
The most useful updates answer the questions families actually have: Did my person arrive? What did they take part in? Is there anything I should follow up on? Short and specific beats long and generic.
- Arrival and departure, drawn from the attendance record.
- Activities and meals the member participated in.
- Anything the family should act on, in plain language.
Privacy boundaries
Keep internal care notes separate from family-facing language; staff observations written for the care team are not automatically appropriate for an update. Share what is relevant to the contact's involvement in care, consistent with your center's HIPAA policies. Adult Day Genie provides a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement with every center, and the update history records what was sent, to whom, and by which staff member.
Fitting updates into the day
Pick a consistent point in the day for routine updates — many centers use the hour before pickup. Because updates live in the same dashboard as attendance and care notes, staff are not recreating the day in a second system; they are reviewing what is already recorded and choosing what the family should see.