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Support Partners and Caregivers

Support Partners and Caregivers

Support Partners allow for a secondary person to participate in the program along side the participant. In some cases, this may be an actual support partner in order to capitalize on the behavioral economics concept of social support and influence, but it can also be used for things like a caregiver, spouse, or a parent/guardian that would benefit from being involved in the intervention of the program.

Note: This documentation details building using the newer Support Partner functionality. For the legacy Participant Support Partners, where the partner was a participant in a separate study, see Participant Support Partners (Legacy).

What can you do with a Support Partner? 

Enabling support partners activates several new configurations and functionalities on the program build.

Messaging

The following variables are available for use in all messaging and surveys:

  • SUPPORT_PARTNER_FIRST_NAME

  • SUPPORT_PARTNER_LAST_NAME

  • SUPPORT_PARTNER_TEXT_NUMBER

  • SUPPORT_PARTNER_EMAIL_ADDRESS

Additionally, Support Partners have their own SMS Inbox and can be manually messaged just like Participants.

Events

The following event types can be assigned to the support partner:

  • Send a Message

  • Administer a Survey

  • Start an SMS Conversation

In these cases, when the partner completes the event, a data submission will be created for the participant with a new column labeled “Completed By” set to “Support Partner” (or whatever label you configure for Support Partners, e.g. Caregiver, Parent, etc)

Logic

The following logic actions are available or enhanced when support partners are enabled:

  • Messages can be sent to the Support Partner

  • Update the Support Partner’s status

  • Update the Support Partner’s profile

  • Start conversation for the Support Partner

  • Stop conversation for the Support Partner

Automated Messaging Responses

Messaging responses can be configured to only trigger for the Participant, the Support Partner, or both

What can’t a support partner do?

  • Can't log into or interact with the participant portal

  • Can’t have their own devices

  • Can’t communicate over IVR

How to enable and configure Support Partners? 

  1. Navigate to Study Settings

    image-20250509-184351.png

     

  2. Go to Advanced and select the Support Partners sidebar tab 

    image-20250509-184549.png

     

  3. Toggle the slider to enable support partners on the study. 

    image-20250509-184646.png

     

  4. If desired, the term used across the platform for “Support Partner” can be customized to be more specific to the program itself.

  5. The profile fields used for support partners can also be customized. Any fields from the “unused” section can be dragged up into the list and re-ordered, so that the forms for adding support partners follow this order and validation. Added fields can also be changed to be either optional or required.

  6. Click save. 

How to assign Support Partner in the Admin

  1. Navigate to a participant profile. 

  2. Once the support partner feature is enabled, participant profile pages will show a tab for the Support Partner (or if using a customized name, that name will appear instead. In this screenshot, the “Caregiver” tab is the support partner tab).

  3. image-20250523-141702.png

  4. Click into the tab and you will see a sidebar with an area to add details for a new Support Partner.

  5. image-20250523-141830.png

  6. As soon as a participant's profile is created during enrollment, you can update the support partner information here. (Note: The only fields that can be filled in are the ones that were configured to show in the Manage Study > Advanced > Support Partner page). This is where the name, contact information, and notification preferences (text or email) for the partner will be entered.

  7. image-20250523-141928.png

  8. After a partner is added, the Support Partner tab will now show their SMS inbox, to view their texts between the program, as well as their conversations and surveys.

  9. image-20250509-190919.png

How to assign Support Partner in the Embed

  1. Support partners can be managed through the Epic Embed in their own display panel.

    1. Support partners can be added within this panel, or have their data updated.

    2. When a support partner exists, their partner SMS inbox will also appear here

  2. image-20250512-154123.png

How to collect Support Partner details in Enrollment

Partner Request Enrollment Step

  1. Within app.waytohealth.org (admin portal)

    1. An enrollment step type now exists specifically for Support Partner creation. In Manage Study > Enrollment, a Partner Request option appears in the Add Enrollment Step dropdown. The default status for newly created partners is able to be set here as well (either ‘Requested’ or 'Active).

    2. image-20250512-152701.png

    3. When a participant reaches this enrollment step, clicking ‘Complete’ on this step will take you to their support partner tab in order to add a partner to their profile. When a partner is added while this step is active, the enrollment step will automatically complete.

    4. If a participant reaches this step and already has a partner, a banner appears on the support partner that allows the user to automatically complete the step if the current partner details are correct.

      image-20250512-153333.png

  2. Within the Epic embed

    1. This step is also completable fully within the Epic embed. The fields that show during this step are configurable through the Manage Study > Advanced > Support Partners menu.

      image-20250512-153551.png

    2. A form will appear once “Complete” is selected, and saving the partner details will automatically complete the step and move on to the next enrollment step. If a partner already exists when the participant reaches this step, their data will be auto-populated in the fields.

      image-20250512-153620.png

NOTE: This step is not yet completable from the Participant Portal, but there are future plans to enable this.

How do I use Support Partners? 

Logic Actions

  1. Messaging within logic

    1. Once the support partners are enabled in the study settings, they can be used in any event logic messaging! This can include non-adherence alerts, weekly adherence or goal reports, reminders about the end of study surveys or visits.  The options are endless! 

    2. The option for Recipient is “Support Partner #1”

    3. image-20250509-191247.png

  2. Modifying a Partner’s profile from survey data

    1. This allows their profile to be updated from data through a completed survey field

  3. Modifying a Partner’s status

    1. image-20250509-192906.png

Support Partner Events

  1. The following events can all be assigned to the Support Partner:

    1. Send a Message

    2. Conversations

    3. Surveys

  2. The configuration for the event now has a field “This event is for the:” which can be set to Participant (the default), or Support Partner.

    1. image-20250509-192249.png

       

    2. Conversations and Surveys will be administered like normal, but to the Support Partner’s configured text number. Once those are completed, the data from said conversation/survey will still appear in the participant’s Data tab for that source.

    3. There is now a column for “Completed by” which will indicate whether the Support Partner or participant was the one to complete the conversation or survey tied to that data.

    4. image-20250509-192631.png

Messaging Triggers for Support Partners

  1. When support partners are enabled on a study, custom messaging responses for support partners can be configured under Messaging > Responses.

    1. Message responses can be set to apply to Participants Only, Support Partners Only, or Participants and Support Partners. This enables programs to have custom paths for when members in the program text in, whether they are an active participant, or a participant’s support partner.

    2. image-20250509-193359.png