With Bristol Myers Squibb support, Crisis to Care pairs NSSC Family Navigators with Primary Record’s digital health tool to help families navigate a family member’s severe mental illness.
Fishers, Indiana — Primary Record, a nurse-led, family-centered health information platform, announced it is the technology partner for Crisis to Care (C2C): A Family Navigation Pilot for Families of Adults with Severe Mental Illness. The National Shattering Silence Coalition (NSSC) is launching the pilot with a $229,337 corporate giving grant from Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS).
An estimated 14.6 million U.S. adults live with severe mental illness (SMI), including schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and bipolar I disorder. Families are often the first to recognize a psychiatric crisis and the most consistent presence across episodes of care. Yet the information they hold, including medication history, prior hospitalizations, and early warning signs, is rarely available when it matters most. Instead, it is scattered across emergency departments, crisis responders, courts, and community providers.
The 12-month Crisis to Care pilot will serve 50 families across five states with two layers of support. The first is a lived-experience Family Navigator from NSSC’s network of more than 1,200 families, who responds within 24 hours of referral. The second is Primary Record’s secure health app, which helps families organize, collaborate on, and share vital health information in one place. Navigators will help each family set up their Primary Record account. Through the app, families can:
- Keep a record they control. Families can store medications, hospitalizations, and discharge summaries, and choose when and with whom to share them.
- Pull in health records from patient portals. Primary Record connects with major hospital patient portals, reducing repetitive data entry for caregivers.
- Access NSSC’s guidance in the moment. NSSC’s SMI-focused guides and state-specific navigation resources are built into each family’s record, so the relevant next step is close at hand.
- Ask questions and get grounded answers. An AI Advocacy Assistant draws on the family’s own record and NSSC’s expert-vetted materials. It cites its sources and never diagnoses or recommends treatment.
- Share a summary in seconds. A QR-code health summary gives emergency personnel and clinical teams basic history, even in a fast-moving situation.
“Families are the most consistent presence across a family member’s care, but too often they arrive at the emergency department with years of history in their heads or on paper,” said Jean Ross, RN, co-founder of Primary Record. “As a nurse, our team intentionally built Primary Record to close that last mile between what families know and what care teams can see. Partnering with NSSC puts that record in the hands of families who need it most, alongside Navigators who have walked this road themselves.”
The pilot is designed to reduce psychiatric readmissions, improve caregiver self-efficacy, and facilitate rapid 24-hour Navigator response. The grant also supports an independent process and impact evaluation of the 12-month pilot. Findings will inform a model for national expansion.
This release is issued jointly with the National Shattering Silence Coalition (NSSC). For more information on NSSC’s Crisis to Care pilot, see NSSC’s companion release via their Press Room or download here.
About Primary Record
Primary Record is a nurse-led, family-centered health information platform that helps patients, caregivers, and community care teams collect, organize, understand, and share health information. Primary Record brings together information from multiple portals and other sources so families and authorized care partners can work from a more complete, current, and understandable health story. Primary Record supports families caring for loved ones with complex and chronic conditions, including severe mental illness. Primary Record’s model is enabled by the 21st Century Cures Act, which gives patients the right to collect and direct their health data to the app of their choice. Learn more at https://www.primaryrecord.com.
About the National Shattering Silence Coalition (NSSC)
The National Shattering Silence Coalition (NSSC) is a non-profit advocacy organization representing more than 1,200 families, clinicians, and lived-experience advocates across 31 states. NSSC works to correct systemic neglect and ensure individuals living with severe mental illness (SMI) receive humane, accountable medical care. Through grassroots education, policy reform, and family support and navigation, NSSC unites clinical evidence and lived-experience perspectives to build an effective continuum of care and eliminate the systemic barriers facing families across every stage of illness. Learn more at https://www.nsscoalition.org.
Media Contact
Jean Ross, CEO, Primary Record
media@primaryrecord.com
