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.
Gillen, whose daughter has serious mental illness, previously authored Schizophrenia & Related Disorders: A Handbook for Caregivers, which became an Amazon best seller with a 4.9-star rating. Her new book addresses a critical gap she identified: the lack of guidance on what 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 explained in plain language.
“At the Johns Hopkins Schizophrenia Center, our mission has always been to integrate patient care, research, and public outreach, because none of those three works without the other two. Connected Care successfully fills the potential gap between them with language that families can actually act on, without sacrificing accuracy,” said Akira Sawa, MD, Director of the Johns Hopkins Schizophrenia Center.
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 until now, no single resource has organized the rapidly expanding world of mental health technology into a practical guide for those who need it most. The book addresses key areas such as pharmaceutical patient assistance programs, passive sensing apps and wearable devices that can detect behavioral shifts preceding relapse, AI tools already used in psychiatric care, FDA-cleared prescription digital therapeutics, and legal rights technology including psychiatric advance directives and insurance denial appeals tools.
“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.
The book also addresses health equity, recognizing that families who access the best mental health technology are often those who already know how to navigate the system. For Latino, Black, rural, and other underserved families, the technology gap compounds existing barriers. Connected Care covers AI algorithmic bias, multilingual telehealth platforms, culturally competent care resources, and financial programs designed for underserved populations. “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,” said Maria Case, founder of Kompashion and NAMI National Speaker.
Connected Care is available in print and digital formats on Amazon. More information can be found at ResourcesForSMI.com.
