While artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies are quietly transforming psychiatric care, families navigating serious mental illness remain almost entirely in the dark. A new book, 'Connected Care: A Practical Guide to Technology for Serious Mental Illness,' by Nicole Drapeau Gillen, aims to change that. Available on Amazon, it is the first book to organize the rapidly expanding world of mental health technology into a practical, accessible guide written specifically for caregivers and families — not clinicians or researchers.
Gillen is herself a caregiver; her daughter has serious mental illness. Her first book, 'Schizophrenia & Related Disorders: A Handbook for Caregivers,' became an Amazon best seller with a 4.9-star rating, demonstrating the demand from a community systematically underserved. 'Connected Care' addresses the gap she found: everything technology offers after diagnosis. The book covers 42+ vetted digital tools, 60 pharmaceutical portals across 16 companies, 6 types of financial assistance programs, 10 AI use cases in psychiatric care, and 19 practical checklists — all in plain language.
Serious mental illness — including schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and bipolar disorder — affects an estimated 14 million Americans, with tens of millions more caregivers. Until now, no single resource had organized mental health technology for families. 'Connected Care' delivers on that need, explaining pharmaceutical patient assistance programs that can reduce medication costs, passive sensing apps and wearable devices that detect behavioral shifts before relapse, AI tools used in psychiatric care, FDA-cleared prescription digital therapeutics, and telehealth platforms designed for serious mental illness.
The book also addresses a health equity crisis. For Latino families, Black families, rural families, and others already navigating a system not built for them, the technology gap compounds existing barriers. 'Connected Care' covers AI algorithmic bias, multilingual telehealth platforms, culturally competent care resources, and financial programs for underserved populations. Maria Case, founder of Kompashion and NAMI National Speaker, whose mother had schizophrenia, noted, 'My family spent ten years searching for answers — ten years of wrong doors, language barriers, and a system that wasn't built for us. I wish Connected Care had existed then.'
Akira Sawa, MD, Director of Johns Hopkins Schizophrenia Center, praised the book: 'Connected Care successfully fills the potential gap between patient care, research, and public outreach with language that families can actually act on, without sacrificing accuracy. This is the kind of resource that belongs in the hands of every family and everyone involved in mental healthcare.'
For more information, visit ResourcesForSMI.com.
