A new book aims to address a critical gap in mental health care by providing families of people with serious mental illness (SMI) with a practical guide to emerging technologies. Connected Care: A Practical Guide to Technology for Serious Mental Illness, authored by Nicole Drapeau Gillen and now available on Amazon, is the first resource to organize digital tools, financial assistance programs, and AI applications specifically for caregivers and families, not clinicians or researchers.
Gillen, whose daughter has SMI, previously wrote Schizophrenia & Related Disorders: A Handbook for Caregivers, which became an Amazon bestseller. Her new book responds to a second unmet need: helping families navigate the technology landscape that has quietly transformed psychiatric care. The book covers over 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 written in plain language.
According to Akira Sawa, MD, Director of the Johns Hopkins Schizophrenia Center, the book fills a crucial gap: "Connected Care successfully fills the potential gap between them with language that families can actually act on, without sacrificing accuracy. It meets families where they are, equips them with tools they can use today, and connects them to a wider landscape of care that most never knew existed."
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. Until now, no single resource has compiled mental health technology for this audience. The book addresses areas such as pharmaceutical patient assistance programs, passive sensing apps and wearable devices that can detect relapse indicators, AI tools in psychiatric care, FDA-cleared prescription digital therapeutics, telehealth platforms, and legal rights technology including psychiatric advance directives and insurance denial appeals tools.
Gillen emphasizes that the mental health system was not designed for families, but technology has created a parallel system that can improve care, save money, and prevent crises. However, access to these technologies is uneven, creating a health equity crisis within the mental health crisis. The book covers AI algorithmic bias, multilingual telehealth platforms, culturally competent care resources, and financial programs for underserved populations, including Latino, Black, and rural families.
Maria Case, founder of Kompashion and a NAMI National Speaker whose mother had schizophrenia, underscores the need: "My family spent ten years searching for answers for my mother's schizophrenia — ten years of wrong doors, language barriers, and a system that wasn't built for us. I wish Connected Care had existed then."
Connected Care is available in print and digital formats on Amazon. More information can be found at ResourcesForSMI.com.
