By Abrahm Hurt
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS — A new partnership will provide Hoosiers struggling with substance abuse a quick way to seek treatment.

Technology from OpenBeds and Indiana 2-1-1’s database of service providers from will be combined to connect people with real-time addiction treatment options.

“The mental health crises we are currently experiencing has many similarities to a natural disaster,” Jennifer Walthall, secretary for Family and Social Services Administration, said. “In order to provide services effectively and efficiently, we need to have a command center to have a global and real-time assessment of resources for individuals in their time of great need.”

OpenBeds is a software platform that helps government health agencies increase access to behavioral health care and decrease costs. Indiana 2-1-1 works to produce healthcare and resource referrals.

Steve Carroll, chief business development officer for OpenBeds, said a social worker at a community health center can access the platform to find specific residential treatments for the substance or substances a patient may be struggling with. By filling out criteria, the worker can narrow a list of 50 treatment centers down to three treatment centers.

“The beauty of this system is that we are embedding not just software but the human component of referral into how we take care of individuals in their moment of need,” Walthall.

Since January of 2017, Walthall said 23 new addiction providers have been certified and 10 currently have applications pending. As of today, she said we currently have 251 active addiction providers and are in the process of adding five new opioid treatment programs.

She said 2-1-1 will also provide ongoing tracking and wrap around services for individuals who enter treatment to aid in sustaining their treatment.

Julie Johns-Cole, state director for Indiana 211 Partnership, said 2-1-1 was a perfect fit for this partnership.

“Not only can we connect individuals to treatment, we can connect them to thousands of services to assist them and their loved ones through this very difficult journey,” she said. “Taking a very holistic approach before, during and after treatments.”

Dr. Krista Brucker, who works in the emergency department at Eskenazi Hospital, said open beds has helped Eskenazi’s program link overdose survivors to treatment services. She said connecting people to help can require multiple phone calls, e-mails and even faxes to get people care.

She said OpenBeds has taken the process of matching a patient’s needs and insurance status from a process that used to last an hour to a process that now takes 2-3 minutes.

“It’s about expanding access to services, but it’s also about using the services that we have more efficiently,” she said

Walthall said the partnership, which went live Thursday, had their first referral happen two days ago.

“The feedback that we got from 2-1-1 and the referrer was that it was the easiest thing they had ever done,” she said.

FOOTNOTE: Abrahm Hurt is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.