Using the MHLC app
A guide for Support Workers · on your phone
1 · Getting the app on your phone
There is nothing to download from an app store. You add the website to your home screen and it behaves like an app.
Go to hub.myhomelivingcare.com/install and follow the steps for your phone. It works out whether you are on iPhone or Android.
2 · Signing in the first time
Forgotten your password? There is a "Forgot password" link on the sign-in screen. If that does not sort it, ask your manager to reset it for you.
3 · Finding your way around
Along the bottom of the screen there are a few buttons. They are always there, whatever you are doing.
- 💬 Chats — your house chats and direct messages. This is where you land, and where most of your day happens.
- 📋 Reports — look back at reports already sent for your houses.
- 🎓 Training — any training you have been given. This one only appears when you have something, and a red number on it is how many you still have to do. See section 12.
- ⋯ More — everything to do with you: 🎛 Settings (including text size), 🔑 Change password, ⬇ Install app, and Sign out. The version number at the bottom of that menu is worth quoting if you ever report a problem.
4 · Chat
This is where most of your day happens. When you open the app you land in 💬 Chats.
Finding a conversation
- You start on a list of your house chats and any direct messages.
- Tap one to open it. Tap ← at the top left to come back to the list.
- Use the search box above the list to find a chat or a person by name. Tap the ✕ at the right-hand end of the box to clear what you typed and get the whole list back — you do not have to delete it a letter at a time.
- A blue number means unread messages.
- Swipe down on the list to refresh it — the line “↓ Swipe down to refresh” above the list is the reminder. It works on the list, not inside a conversation; messages in an open conversation arrive by themselves.
Reading a conversation
- Messages are grouped under the day they were sent — Today, Yesterday, then the date.
- When one person sends several messages in a row, they are stacked together and only the first one shows their name. Less repetition, easier to read.
- If you have unread messages, the conversation opens at a line that says 3 unread messages, so you start where you left off instead of at the bottom. That line stays where it is while you read — it will not pull you back up to it.
- Scrolled up into older messages? A ⌄ button appears at the bottom right. Tap it to jump back to the newest message.
Sending a message
- Type in the box at the bottom and tap the blue ➤ button.
- The return key on your phone's keyboard starts a new line — it does not send. Tap ➤ when you are ready to send.
- Type @ to tag someone — they get a notification even if the chat is busy.
Making text bold, or writing a list
You can format a message as you type it — the same way you already do in WhatsApp. Put the symbols around the words, and they turn into formatting when the message sends.
| Type this | You get |
|---|---|
*medication given* | medication given |
_please check_ | please check |
__important__ | important |
~cancelled~ | |
- fluids given- pad changed |
• fluids given • pad changed |
1. check chart2. sign off |
1. check chart 2. sign off |
A list is worth the trouble on a handover — three short bullets are read; one long sentence with three things buried in it often is not.
Knowing it was read
Under your own messages you will see one of these:
- ✓ Sent — it has reached MHLC, but nobody has opened it yet.
- ✓✓ Seen by 2 of 5 — how many people in that chat have opened it. Tap it to see who.
Doing something with a message someone sent
Every message has ⋯ on it. Tap that — or press and hold the message itself for a moment — and you get everything you can do with that one message, including the row of faces for reacting.
- 🙂 the row of faces at the top — react. Good for "seen it, understood" without adding another message to a busy chat. ＋ at the end of the row opens more faces — ✅, ❌, ☕ and others — with a search box; − folds them away again.
- 📋 Copy text — copies the message's words, ready to paste somewhere else.
- ↩ Reply — answer that message directly, so it is clear what you mean.
- ↪ Forward — send it on to another chat.
- 📌 Pin — keep it at the top of the conversation for everyone.
- ✏️ Edit and 🗑 Delete — on your own messages only.
Sending a photo or a document
- Tap ✚ next to the message box.
- Choose take a photo, or pick one already on your phone.
- Add a caption if you want to, then tap ➤ to send.
- Photos and PDFs, up to 10MB each. One file per message — send them one at a time.
Finding something that was said
Tap the 🔍 at the top of a conversation to search inside it. Tap a result to jump to that message.
5 · Completing a shift report
“What happened when you supported…?”
For each resident, the report starts with one list. Tick what came up on your shift and leave the rest.
- Daily living: when you tick one, it asks How did it go? — Independently, With staff support or Declined to participate.
- Sometimes the answer is already filled in, with “Usual for Bruce — change it if today was different” underneath. Check it, and change it if today was different.
- Anything else: ticking it opens the questions about it further down the form — tick Napped and it asks what time, for example.
- Away from the house: tick it if they were out for part of your shift.
- Leave a box unticked and the report records that it did not happen on your shift. You do not need to write “nil” or “no” against anything in this list.
A few questions are still asked one at a time, like restrictive practices — answer those Yes or No as before.
If you get interrupted
A half-written report is not lost. What you type is saved on your phone as you go — you will see “Saved on this phone at 3:42 pm” under the form. If the page reloads, your signal drops, or you close it to answer the door, open it again and everything is where you left it, including which residents you had ticked.
A draft is kept for about 18 hours, which covers a shift and a sleep. It is on that phone only — starting on the house iPad and finishing on your own phone will not work.
Once you submit, a card goes into the house chat. If you also did a medication sign off during the same shift, that card lists it underneath — so the team can see at a glance what was completed and for whom.
✅ Medication Administration Record (2×) — Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff
When you press Submit
- If anything required is missing, it lists what — by resident — and nothing is sent until it is filled in.
- It may ask you to double-check something — for example, your note mentions PRN but PRN medication given is not ticked. Tap Cancel to go back and fix it, or OK if what you have written is right.
- If you already sent a report for the same shift, it shows you that one first and asks before sending a second.
- When it has gone, the form is replaced by a confirmation with its reference number.
Incident reports
In a house chat, tap ✚ → ⚠️ Incident report. It opens as its own page, the same way the shift report does. You can also open it straight from this link: hub.myhomelivingcare.com/incident-report
Answer the questions in order. Some only appear when you answer Yes:
- Type of incident — pick the main thing that happened, for example Self-harm or Fall / trip. If someone was hurt, that goes under Was anyone injured?, which then asks who.
- Were there any witnesses? — if yes, the witness’s name. Their email and phone number are asked too; fill them in if you have them. The phone number takes numbers only.
- Were emergency services called? — if yes, tick each one that came: Police, Ambulance or Fire brigade. Each tick asks its own questions — the police station, whether the client went to the emergency department and which hospital, or whether the fire brigade gave a report.
- Was a restrictive practice used during the incident? — if yes, which one, whether it is in the client’s behaviour support plan (Not sure is a fine answer), why it was used, how many minutes it was used for, and what was done to reduce or stop it.
6 · Medication sign off
This replaces the paper medication chart. You sign with your finger, on your phone, at the time you give the medication.
The form opens as its own page. ← Back to chat at the top left takes you back to the conversation you came from — before you submit if you opened it by mistake, or after, once it is sent.
7 · When you can't cover a shift 🆘
If you cannot make a shift you are rostered for, say so in the app rather than only ringing round. It puts the ask in front of everyone at that house at once, and it leaves a record.
Why SIL and CP matter here. Whoever picks the shift up needs to know what they are agreeing to before they offer. A CP shift is one named person's outing, so the card says whose — the list only ever shows the people who live at that house. If a shift is both at once, tick both.
Your request appears in the house chat as a red card, so nobody scrolls past it.
If someone else needs cover
Tap 🙋 I can cover on their card. That is an offer, not a commitment — the shift is not yours until it has been confirmed, and you will see the card update when it is. Changed your mind before then? Tap the same button again to withdraw.
Posted it by mistake? Open your own card and tap Cancel request. It stops showing as open, and the record is kept.
8 · Seeing the house calendar
Appointments and outings for the house and the people living there.
Entries are grouped by day, with today first. Each one is colour-coded and labelled — the house itself, or the person it belongs to. Tap a name in the row of buttons at the top to show or hide just that calendar.
9 · Announcements
Important notices appear as a banner at the top of the chat. Dismissing one is fine — you can always bring it back with the 📢 Announcements button in the header.
10 · Looking back at what was sent
Tap 📋 Reports along the bottom. You see the shift reports, medication records and other forms sent for the houses you work at, newest first. Tap one to read it in full.
11 · 🍽️ Meals, the stock take and the shopping
Where: open the house chat, tap ✚ beside the message box, then 🍽️ Meals & recipes — the same menu as the shift report and the calendar. Nothing about the shopping is posted into the chat; it all lives behind that button, so the messages stay messages.
The sheet shows what is planned for today, including anything different for one resident (“Bruce: no peas”), and whether a delivery is due — the menu item itself says so when one is. Where a meal has a recipe there is a 📖 Recipe button beside it.
12 · 🎓 Training
Training that has been given to you appears under 🎓 Training. The icon only shows up when you have something, and the red number on it is how many you still have to do.
Finding it. On a phone it is along the bottom, next to Reports. On a computer it is in the strip down the left-hand side.
What you will see. A card for each course, telling you where you are up to:
- Not started yet — you have not opened it
- Carry on — you started it and stopped partway through
- Done — finished, with the date
Tap Open on the one you want to do. It opens in a new page.
Working through a module. Use Continue to move forward, and Back if you want to read something again. The top of the screen tells you which step you are on.
“I understand that…” lists. Tick every box. Continue will not move on until they are all ticked, and it tells you how many are left.
Videos. Some steps have a video to watch before Continue works. If you stop partway, the video picks up where you left off next time — on the same phone or computer. On a different one it starts again from the beginning.
There are some questions at the end. The start of each module tells you how many.
When you finish, the date and time are recorded against your name, the course shows as Done, and the red number goes down by one.
The SIL modules
There are nine, numbered 01 to 09. Do them in order — each one builds on the one before.
13 · 🧮 Sheets
Sheets are spreadsheets inside the hub — like Excel or Google Sheets — that the office can share with you, for example with your house chat. Everyone who has it open sees changes as they happen.
Finding it. 🧮 Sheets only appears once a sheet has been shared with you. On a phone it is in ⋯ More; on a computer it is in the strip down the left-hand side.
Being told. When a sheet is shared with you, 🔔 Updates shows “… shared a sheet with you” — on a phone under ⋯ More, on a computer the 🔔 at the top right. Tap it to open the sheet.
- Can view — you can read it but not change it. The sheet says so at the top.
- Can edit — tap a cell and type. It saves by itself; ✓ Saved shows at the bottom right.
- A cell with ▾ is a list — tap it and choose. A ☐ is a tick box — tap it to tick.
- ⏷ Filter puts a ▾ on each heading so you can show only the rows you want, for example your house. It only changes your screen.
14 · If something is not working
I am not getting notifications
- Is the app on your home screen? On iPhone notifications never work otherwise.
- Check your phone's notification settings for MHLC and allow them.
- Check the 🔔 in the app is not muted.
I cannot see 🎓 Training
It only appears when something has been assigned to you. If you have been told you have training and the icon is not there, close the app fully and open it again. If it is still missing, ask your manager.
I cannot see 🧮 Sheets
It only appears once a sheet has been shared with you. If you have been told one has, close the app fully and open it again.
A message will not send
Look for an offline banner at the top. What you typed is saved — it will send when you have signal again.
There is no 💊 Medication sign off under ✚
It only appears in a house chat, under ✚ beside the message box, and only once a form has been set up and made live for that house. Check the name at the top is the house. If it is, ask your manager whether the form is live for that house yet.
The signature box will not draw
Use your finger directly on the box. If the page moves instead of drawing, you are probably just outside the box — start again from inside the dotted edge.
I cannot see a house or a person I expect
You see the houses and people you are assigned to. If something you expect is missing, ask your manager to check your access.
Something else
Message your manager in the app, or say so in the house chat. A screenshot helps — take one on your phone the usual way, then tap ✚ in the chat and pick it from your photos.
My Home Living Care · hub.myhomelivingcare.com
There are guides for other roles too — the links are at the bottom of this page.