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SPIRIT: Connecting the Hurting to the Help
Eric Nidiffer, Chief Operations OfficerImmediately this team set out to solve these complex problems of connecting the dots of multiple legacy systems trying for years to integrate and communicate without success due to the “silo” based systems. The answer came in the creation of SPIRIT (Suppression, Prevention, Intervention Referral Intelligence Tool). Within SPIRIT, an individual’s care coordination is case managed, while providing connectivity and collaboration as the heart of a custom-built solution. Clients are connected in real time to community providers with specifically tailored treatments, including individually matched appointment times, via Spirit’s patent-pending algorithms, ensuring referrals are providing the highest probability for success every time.
Over the next decade, SPIRIT continued to grow, expand and improve toward perfecting the art of collaboration within the Government sector. Today, with partnerships from Nevada to Florida, SPIRIT is a front runner in connecting those who are hurting to help, in communities across America by intelligently matching clients to treatment, support, and programs based their key criteria. Therefore, referring them to the best healing and treatment recovery plan available. One call SPIRIT will never forget came after Orlando’s 2016 tragedy, where at the request of key government leadership, the SPIRIT team deployed their solution within 48 hours, facilitating 500+ treatment referrals for the victims and their families to receive connections to crisis care coordination services.
"By placing coalitions in a position to connect everyone through a system, such as SPIRIT, we would be able to identify resources, fill needed gaps in the current resources, case manage high utilizers of systems to connect them to wrap around services and locate the appropriate resource at the appropriate time.” Executive Director, Drug Coalition"
To date, SPIRIT has contract uses for Homelessness, Law Enforcement, Courts, Mental Health, School Districts, Hospitals, Drug Coalitions, Domestic Violence Collaboratives, Corrections, as well as multiple large scale Non-Profit Organization sectors.
Spirit’s technological developments are experiencing national recognition from delivering never obtained ROI’s and outcomes, in effectiveness and efficiency. Good things result when substance abuse or homeless populations in multi-county regions can be case managed via a community collaborative software platform loaded with game-changing tool-sets. Spirit’s secret-sauce components are changing the landscape on outcomes.
For example, a homeless person has a need (job, housing, medical, spiritual, financial, clothing, training, etc.) and the resource to fill this need is located multi-counties over; Spirit in real-time matches the individual’s need with the available resource and GPS connects the two, instantly the need is resolved. Hence, technology accomplishes what previously was humanly impossible toward curbing multiplicities of issues like homelessness, drug abuse, domestic violence, hospital early readmissions, etc.
In 2016, the SPIRIT team realized a critical Child Welfare need and launched an additional software product; called PRIME (Placement-Referral-Intelligent-Matching- Engine) which focuses on helping foster youth, families and Child Welfare teams manage placements, respite care, recruitment, licensing and more, all within a collaborative system.
Another great example is Spirit’s use to lower recidivism in local county jails or correctional facilities, where rates of returning offenders can exceed 70% or higher. Spirit client’s use in these settings has lowered their recidivism down to 10-15% for participating offenders
Without the technology breakthrough of PRIME, this vital work requires long meetings, multiples of phone calls, spreadsheets and whiteboards to accomplish.
With huge technological advantages of increased effectiveness in reduced time to permanency, plus enhanced placement stability and support; PRIME is helping nearly 85%of child welfare in Nevada and currently is anxious to enhance child Welfare outcomes across the Country.
When PRIME delivers intelligent matches with the highest probability for success, by considering the critical details, down to the actual bedroom and other stability criteria required for permanency plus add ongoing communication, connectivity, and accountability; the foster family thrives.
The company is highly focused on providing U.S. communities with innovative prevention and intervention methodologies, delivering high-tech solutions that can connect at-risk youth, families, and adults with the most effective resources available for best results. Whether, corrections recidivism, managing homelessness, school safety via mental health wellness, domestic violence, post-acute care re-admission reduction, substance abuse, or child welfare, SPIRIT Solutions can deliver designated platforms that endow collaboration in a fully secure environment while adhering to mandated privacy regulations such as HIPPA, COPPA, and FERPA.
The SPIRIT of Saving Lives
Built specifically to help organizations of all size and sector concentration for responding to a client’s immediate needs, the SPIRIT system links the hurting to programs and resources available within their own internal organization or in their community. The solution also provides streamlined ways to collaborate and coordinate with all team members delivering care coordination services to their client while monitoring progress in real time. This allows stakeholders to respond appropriately to any increased risk factors or harm concerns. Users can build most Universal Screenings and Threat Assessments within the company's tool-set. “Spirit configures and creates most assessment or survey formats in the system. Our risk and needs assessment answers can be weighted numerically and linked to mental health issues, or acuity scores of various types to help early identification of risk factors,” says Nidiffer. The software also provides components to ensure clients are properly connected with external programs and services through the patent-pending referral system.
SPIRIT aids in the coordination of services by allowing organizations to build a network of trusted providers and refer clients to these providers directly within SPIRIT. Upon accepting a referral, providers will gain immediate, real-time information about the client and their treatment needs with the consent and proper information sharing guidelines in place. Their clients/patients have their own portal for enhancing care coordination with real-time communication and monitoring taking place for ongoing assessments, case plan goals, surveys, med management, wellness checks, etc. SPIRIT's notification system can greatly lower the client's technical violations and their referral appointment no-shows. Follow-up assessments and surveys can be assigned through this toolset which allows for quick comparison. Previous assessments, screenings, and progress can be monitored in real-time with immediate interventions enacted instantly if the needs or risk factors are warranted. “We believe in a community “no wrong door” approach toward helping clients walk through difficult circumstances or needs,” says Eric Nidiffer, COO Spirit Solutions, “if everyone is collaborating properly there is no reason we cannot ensure more people are getting the help they truly need!”
PRIMEd to create a Difference
The most vital capability of SPIRIT is allowing each data point to be reported on—with real-time information—like every client, organization or agency can have up to date data needed for grant reporting and showing the outcomes with their ROI's, plus exposing areas needing attention.
"Not only was SPIRIT used to help over 500 Night Club Victim referrals, but delivered what should be considered as “Head-Line News” in obtaining a ZERO PERCENT recidivism to a 2.3 million population, in servicing a treatment group with either four mental health hospitalizations or four mental health arrests within six months. It can be said, this breakthrough technology has value anywhere recidivism events occur; for example, hospital use for post-acute care coordination toward eliminating the early re-admission events currently costing hospitals millions of dollars annually”, says William Nidiffer, CEO Spirit Solutions"
The system manages program stakeholder participants with every detail accounted for and is scalable for statewide or regional care coordination, keeping everyone on the same page toward obtaining or exceeding the desired goals.
The technology’s communication, connectivity, and accountability at all levels help manage critical resources and funding, to assure the highest and best use is being made for every dollar expended toward providing the highest level of services with best ROI’s. The motto is no client will ever fall through the cracks or fail to get connected via SPIRITS’ case management toolsets. 24/7 real-time status of each client, organization or agency is available at the users’ fingertips anytime anywhere.
PRIME’s evidence-based methodologies achieve reductions in state custody residential populations, quicker permanency and increased placement stability, lower disruptions, licensing, increased foster parent inventories and intelligent placement matches. Born out of a desire to decrease placement disruptions by finding the “best home” in a collaborative manner with the school of origin considerations are PRIME’s attributes. Evidence-based research substantiates the huge advantages when a Child Services Agency participates in deploying a software technology for increased effectiveness to assess each child’s needs, an appropriate level of care, proximity to the child’s home, and other factors.“PRIME is a game changer for child welfare for the staff, the foster youth and the families,” mentions Nidiffer.
Toward a SPIRITed Future
Having carved a unique niche for itself, SPIRIT’s success has been predicated from an ongoing collaboration with experts in child psychology, social epidemiology in public health, criminal and juvenile justice, information sharing and digital technology. The combined expertise, passion, and shared vision has multiplied the impact and results achieved for youth, families, and adults across the nation. The SPIRIT team consists of professionals who have worked for the agencies and organizations they are now developing cutting-edge technology for.
"Drug coalition regional lifeline director’s story discussing advantages of Spirit use “On a daily basis, I spend countless hours assessing the needs of people who call looking for lifesaving help. Most days I am asking them questions that have been asked by dozens of other people and places they have called. Once that, often repeated, information is gathered I begin calling many places searching for availability based on the information gathered. This can sometimes be hours, even day’s worth of back and forth. The process to achieve a grant bed for the uninsured can be several days in the making with no other way to keep track other than making a note to follow up with these individuals, if they are reachable or still alive. My quarterly report this last quarter showed 116 referrals to treatment alone...using this process. That doesn’t count the family support phone calls, as well as follow up, and referrals to alcohol rehab programs. Those are sometimes just as arduous as the treatment referrals. In our demo of Spirit, I watched hour’s worth of time on the phone disappear. In doing this work...saving time saves lives"
Moving ahead, SPIRIT aims to provide technology solutions to lower the destructive issues of mental health, school violence, child welfare, substance abuse, homelessness, domestic violence, post-acute care coordination, reduced hospital re-admissions and even lower jail - corrections recidivism. The company is confident its products will deliver solid game-changing results and outcomes for years to come.
March 06, 2019
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