Maria Martha Moreno, MS CIS | MH Services Program Manager @ RUHS – Behavioral Health
For over two years, RUHS – Behavioral Health- Help@Hand and A4i, co-founded by Dr. Sean Kidd and Amos Adler, worked together on a groundbreaking initiative to pilot the App4Independence (A4i) platform. This collaboration was an incredibly rewarding experience, demonstrating the power of digital solutions in enhancing mental health care for individuals facing complex behavioral challenges, including schizophrenia and psychosis.
In November 2023, the A4i team and Riverside met to review the implementation process, share lessons learned, and celebrate the successes of the A4i pilot. The event was an opportunity to engage healthcare professionals, patients, and digital health enthusiasts. Clinicians, administrators, and individuals with lived experience presented their insights, reinforcing how A4i has improved care at Riverside and enhanced the quality of life for 102 pilot participants.
A4i is a validated mobile app and clinical portal designed to support individuals with severe mental illnesses and substance use disorders. With features such as AI-driven wellness detection, adherence escalations, secure peer engagement, and an innovative auditory hallucination detector, A4i provides comprehensive self-management tools. The platform aims to bridge care gaps by facilitating care team communication, community support, medication management, wellness tracking, and environmental sound monitoring (see full list of A4i features).
Impact and Lessons Learned
The A4i pilot demonstrated significant outcomes. The results revealed unprecedented treatment care enhancements including increasing access to care, reduction in relapse and hospital readmission, optimization of care team capacity, particularly in integrating peer support with clinical services.
One of the most impactful aspects of this partnership was A4i’s commitment to adaptability and inclusion. The Help@Hand Innovation project emphasized the peer voice at all levels of A4i app implementation. The peer team actively contributed to the Newsfeed, app development, and design refinements, ensuring the platform was user-friendly and culturally responsive. A4i’s willingness to iterate on feedback was key in making the app truly accessible and engaging for those who needed it most.
Our participants were excited to be part of this innovation, providing valuable feedback that shaped the platform’s development enhancements. The success of A4i in filling critical treatment gaps highlights the importance of digital solutions in modern mental healthcare. As we look ahead, we see opportunities to expand A4i’s reach to more behavioral healthcare providers, clinic sites, and patient populations, continuing to refine and enhance the tool based on real-world experiences.
We are deeply grateful for this great partnership and the transformative impact A4i has had on the individuals we serve.