
The A-CHESS Platform including the Connections smartphone app, uses relapse prevention tools and condition-specific content to enable patients and their care team, including peer specialists, to connect 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This facilitates proactive, continuous engagement and faster intervention.
“Our office is determined to leave no stone unturned in our efforts to combat the opioid epidemic on Staten Island,” said BP Oddo. "When my staff presented their research highlighting the effectiveness of the A-CHESS Platform and corresponding smartphone app, it became clear that this tool could be a game-changer for the borough’s treatment community. Of course we turned to one of our most dependable partners, the SI PPS, to jointly fund this pilot effort which we anticpate will save lives.”
“We are delighted to join SI PPS and Borough President Oddo in their efforts to fight substance abuse in the Staten Island area,” said Hans Morefield, chief executive officer at CHESS Health. “One of the biggest obstacles to treatment success is relapse shortly after treatment. A-CHESS gives patients the tools to avoid relapse, right in their pocket.”
“We see the A-CHESS Platform as an integral part of our substance abuse treatment strategy,” said Ashley Blauvelt, director of project management at SI PPS. “Preventing relapse is essential to providing high quality care and avoiding preventable hospital admissions and readmissions.”SI PPS is one of 25 systems across New York State that receives funding through a Medicaid redesign grant via the New York State Department of Health for the Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) program. DSRIP is an initiative with a goal to reduce preventable hospitalizations by 25% by 2020, and one that leverages technological innovation to improve outcomes for populations with chronic conditions like substance abuse disorders.
The Borough President’s Office has been on the front lines in the battle against opioid abuse from introducing evidence-based prevention programs into Staten Island’s schools to increasing access to life-saving Naloxone to an ongoing major data initiative in partnership with Johns Hopkins University and Northwell Health. CHESS Health is eager to contribute its expertise and proven platform to amplify the impact of these comprehensive efforts.
A-CHESS will be part of a year-long pilot program jointly funded by SI PPS and the Staten Island Borough President’s Office, to provide a continuum of services to recovery centers, outpatient counseling, inpatient detox, residential treatment and other recovery groups. Per Blauvelt, “We chose CHESS Health in part based on the need to provide data to validate outcomes from the pilot, a requirement to substantiate financial support to PPS partners for the grant.”
You can see a video about the app below: