What it does
Each profile carries the person's emergency contacts — a ranked list of who to reach in a crisis — alongside personal details like date of birth, demographic information, addresses, and languages. Institutions can add their own custom fields to capture anything the standard form leaves out.
Who it's for
People maintain their own emergency contacts and personal details; program administrators, coordinators, and institution administrators with people access can view and maintain these records for people in their scope.
How it works
Emergency contacts. Each contact records a name, relationship, and primary phone, plus optional alternate phone, email, mailing address, and notes. Contacts are ranked by priority — who to call first — and can be reordered any time. A new contact slots in at the end unless you place it yourself.
Personal details. The About tab records date of birth, gender, ethnicity, marital status, birthplace, citizenship, languages, previous name, and mailing addresses, editable inline by the person or an administrator with edit access.
Custom fields. Institutions define their own fields for people, sites, and programs under optional Categories, such as Trainee Fields or Demographics. Each field uses one of eight types: text, long text, date, dropdown, multi-select, checkbox, number, and email. Dropdown and multi-select fields carry institution-defined options, and a field can be marked required. Values show on the About tab, grouped by category; fields with no category show under Ungrouped, or as one Additional Information block when nothing is categorized.
Learner self-editing of custom fields. A field can be marked self-service so people fill it in themselves, but this only works once the institution also turns on Allow learners to self-edit custom fields (Settings → Institution defaults, Demographics section). That switch is off by default. Until turned on, every custom field is admin-managed, and people see their saved values read-only with a note to contact an administrator. The gate is enforced at the database, not just in the interface.
Before you start
Anyone can see and edit their own emergency contacts. Viewing someone else's needs people-view permission; changing them needs people-edit permission.
Custom fields only appear if your institution has already defined them under Settings → Custom Fields.
Do this
Open a person's profile (
/users/profile/:userId) and find the Emergency Contacts section → you should see existing contacts or No emergency contacts on file.Select Manage contacts → the Emergency Contacts sheet opens.
Select Add contact and enter a name, relationship, and phone number, plus any optional details → your changes save immediately, and the sheet confirms.
To change who gets called first, drag a contact to a new position in the sheet → the priority order updates right away.
You're done when
✓ The new contact appears in the Emergency Contacts section.
✓ The contact you moved shows in its new position in the priority order.
✓ A custom field you filled in appears on the About tab, grouped under its category.
Boundaries and limits
Emergency contacts are not private from administration: administrators with people-view permission at the person's institution can see them, and those with people-edit permission can maintain them. This is deliberate — the information must be reachable in an emergency.
Individuals can only see and manage their own emergency contacts. There is no peer visibility.
Access rules are enforced at the database level, not just in the interface.
Custom fields are defined per institution and appear for that institution's people only. There is no organization-wide custom field definition on the profile.
Custom field types are fixed to the eight listed above. Computed or file-upload custom fields are not available.
Deleting an emergency contact is a soft removal. It disappears from the profile but is not physically destroyed.
Common questions
Q: Who can see a resident's emergency contacts? A: The resident, and administrators who hold people-view permission at the resident's institution. Others cannot.
Q: Can we make a custom field mandatory? A: Yes, when your institution defines it.
Q: Why can't our learners fill in a self-service custom field? A: Marking a field self-service is not enough. An administrator must also turn on Allow learners to self-edit custom fields in Settings → Institution defaults. Until then, learners see saved values read-only.
Q: How do Categories work for custom fields? A: In Settings → Custom Fields, create a Category, then assign fields to it. Fields in the same Category appear together on the profile. Assigning one is optional.
Q: How do I control who gets called first? A: Contacts are ordered by priority. Reorder the list so the first-call contact is at the top.
Q: Can custom fields hold document uploads? A: No. Custom fields cover text, long text, date, dropdown, multi-select, checkbox, number, and email values. Documents live in the profile's Documents tab.
Related articles