A Chicago mental health and community services agency is piloting a mobile care management platform with its population of military veterans.
A select number of clients of the Veterans Project at mental health-focused social services organization Thresholds will soon be able to communicate with clinicians and receive educational material through a mobile app supplied by Boston-based vendor Wellframe. Under an agreement announced Tuesday, five Thresholds clinicians will deliver care plans through Android and iOS versions of the app and track the daily activities of certain patients, according to Veterans Project director Lydia Zopf.
Plans are to increase the number of participating clinicians and, if the pilot pans out for veterans, roll out the technology to the general Thresholds clientele. Initially, though, the focus will be on this particularly vulnerable segment of mental health patients.
“We have veterans that we work with who have been in the mental health system for years. One thing we hear from them consistently is that they want something new,” Zopf told MedCity News.
“We’ve been able to work with Wellframe to customize a program for the veterans that we work with,” Zopf said.
The program goes through different modules, essentially survey questions to screen for signs of drug, alcohol or tobacco use, sleep problems, pain, depression, anxiety and isolation, as well as track medication adherence, physical activity and nutrition habits. “Every week or so, there’s a different focus in the program,” Zopf said.
From there, clinicians can push out educational material and messages encouragement, such as how those with or at risk for diabetes, obesity or heart disease can easily add more fruits and vegetables to their diet or how to fight the need to drink alcohol, in hopes of preventing major health issues. “New articles will pop up every day,” according to Zopf.
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The pilot will run for at least 90 days with people who already have smartphones, particularly younger, tech-savvy veterans. Zopf said Thresholds may later seek donations to supply smartphones to high-risk clients.
