A new book aims to arm families of people with serious mental illness with a comprehensive guide to the technology and resources that can improve care, reduce costs, and prevent crises. 'Connected Care: A Practical Guide to Technology for Serious Mental Illness,' by Nicole Drapeau Gillen, is now available on Amazon. The book is the first to organize the rapidly expanding world of mental health technology into a practical guide written specifically for caregivers and families, not clinicians or researchers.
Gillen, whose daughter has serious mental illness, previously authored 'Schizophrenia & Related Disorders: A Handbook for Caregivers,' which became an Amazon bestseller. 'Connected Care' addresses the gap she found after the diagnosis: the lack of accessible information about technology that can help manage the condition. The book covers 42 vetted digital tools, 60 pharmaceutical portals across 16 companies, six types of financial assistance programs, 10 AI use cases in psychiatric care, and 19 practical checklists, all explained in plain language.
Serious mental illness, including schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and bipolar disorder, affects an estimated 14 million Americans, with tens of millions more family members and caregivers. Yet no single resource had organized the technology landscape for them until now. The book includes information on pharmaceutical patient assistance programs and co-pay portals that can reduce or eliminate medication costs, passive sensing apps and wearable devices that can detect behavioral shifts preceding a relapse, AI tools used in psychiatric care, FDA-cleared prescription digital therapeutics, telehealth platforms, and legal rights technology such as psychiatric advance directives and insurance denial appeals tools.
According to the press release, 'Connected Care' also addresses health equity, covering AI algorithmic bias, multilingual telehealth platforms, and culturally competent care resources for Latino, Black, rural, and other underserved families. 'The mental health system was not built for families. But technology has quietly created a parallel system that families can use to get better care, save money, and prevent the next crisis. Most families have no idea any of it exists,' said Gillen.
Dr. Akira Sawa, Director of the Johns Hopkins Schizophrenia Center, endorsed the book, saying it 'successfully fills the potential gap between them with language that families can actually act on, without sacrificing accuracy.' The book is available in print and digital formats on Amazon. More information can be found at ResourcesForSMI.com.
