With BMS support, Crisis to Care pairs Family Navigators with Primary Record’s digital health tool to support families navigating severe mental illness.
BOSTON, MA, UNITED STATES, September 29, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — The National Shattering Silence Coalition (NSSC) today announced that it has received a $229,337 corporate giving grant from Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) to launch Crisis to Care (C2C): A Family Navigation Pilot for Families of Adults with Severe Mental Illness.
An estimated 14.6 million U.S. adults live with severe mental illness (SMI), including schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and bipolar I disorder. During a psychiatric crisis, critical clinical history—including medication response, prior hospitalizations, and behavioral changes—frequently becomes fragmented across emergency departments, law enforcement encounters, and community behavioral health providers. Families, who often serve as primary unpaid caregivers, are routinely left to navigate these complex care systems without formal support or organized data.
The 12-month Crisis to Care pilot equips 50 families across five states with a dual-layer safety net designed to reduce psychiatric readmissions, improve caregiver self-efficacy, and facilitate rapid 24-hour navigator deployment:
• Dedicated Family Navigators: Lived-experience peer navigators recruited from NSSC’s network of over 1,200 families respond within 24 hours of referral to guide families across the full arc of crisis—from pre-crisis planning and emergency room encounters through discharge and 90-day post-hospital care continuity.
• Family-Owned Digital Health Sovereignty: Through Primary Record, families will receive access to a secure health app designed to organize, collaborate, and share vital medical information in one place. The platform integrates NSSC’s SMI-focused guides and state-specific navigation resources, while generating shareable QR-code summaries for emergency personnel and clinical teams.
“When a loved one experiences severe psychiatric decompensation or anosognosia—an impaired awareness of illness—families are usually the first to recognize the crisis and the most consistent presence across episodes of care,” said Ann Corcoran, RN, MSN, CEO and President of NSSC. “Yet, families are often locked out or left without a map. We are grateful to Bristol Myers Squibb for their generous funding that allows us to partner with Primary Record’s innovative technology to give families the structured tools, clinical navigation, and peer support needed to move loved ones out of crisis cycles and into sustained care continuity.”
The funding will also support an independent process and impact evaluation of the 12-month pilot.
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.
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 allows patients to collect and direct their health data to the app of their choice. Learn more at https://www.primaryrecord.com.
Ann Corcoran RN, MSN, CEO & President
National Shattering Silence Coalition
+1 617-512-1097
email us here
Legal Disclaimer:
EIN Presswire provides this news content “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability
for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this
article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
Media gallery
