TAMPA, Fla. — To Gary Mendell, it was a helpless feeling. His son, Brian, died by suicide in the midst of the evening in October 2011.
According to Mendell, Brian made the tragic determination after a chronic battle with a illness he struggled to deal with. In his teenage years, he tried medicine and alcohol, which led to addiction.
Mendell remembers the sensation of not figuring out the place to flip for assist.
“Like most families or any family with this disease, at that time, it was really — extremely difficult understanding what level of care your son or daughter needs. Do they need outpatient? Do they need residential? Do they need medications? Do they need mental health services?” he recalled. “There is no one place to go. You call a neighbor. You go to Google. You have no idea.”
After Brian’s demise, Mendell requested himself two questions: what may he have carried out in another way as a father? Also, what may he do to spare different households from the identical tragedy?
Those unknowns finally led to the creation of a nonprofit, Shatterproof, and a website, ATLAS, which is now out there to all Floridians. During a news convention in Tampa on Thursday, Mendell will be part of Florida Blue, the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay, politicians, and others to announce and promote the brand new website.
“It’s already changing the system,” he mentioned.
Mendell mentioned the free on-line instrument is exclusive in the best way it permits these struggling with addictions to full a fast, confidential evaluation earlier than connecting them with acceptable clinics and different providers primarily based on their wants and insurance coverage suppliers. It permits them to learn patient-submitted evaluations for these clinics and evaluate and distinction them.
“It’ll go through just 13 questions to understand the severity of your disease, what you’re addicted to, and is outpatient or residential most appropriate, and what additional services are needed by you,” Mendell defined.
The website grades suppliers on an inventory of greatest practices, which it calls “signs of high-quality care.” Those greatest practices embody fast entry to care, entry to medicines, and entry to long-term treatment. The website provides a facility a inexperienced examine mark for every benchmark it meets.
While suppliers have affect over the information included on the location, Mendell mentioned there are checks and balances to make sure the information is correct. For occasion, he mentioned Shatterproof makes use of claims information to confirm whether or not suppliers meet sure greatest practices.
“It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty close,” he mentioned.
Mendell mentioned ATLAS would solely get higher as extra folks use it and submit evaluations.
Florida is the tenth state by which it is out there. According to Mendell, Florida Blue offered the preliminary funding to launch ATLAS in Florida, and thanks to a partnership with the State of Florida, funding will finally be offered by the state.
“It’s already up and running,” he mentioned. “It’s available to everyone in the state.”
Mendell hopes the website will finally be out there to all Americans as a result of he believes it has the flexibility to save numerous lives as overdose deaths continue to wreak havoc on thousands of families.
“I got a call from someone Saturday who said, ‘I heard about you through Treatment ATLAS. I’m on the Treatment ATLAS site. I’m using it. I’m narrowing my search for my brother,’” he mentioned. “Can I prove that it’s going to save — that he’s now going to live for the next 50 years and he would have died? No. But I know that he was highly at risk, and he’s not now. He’s safe in treatment right now in the appropriate outpatient.”
More than a decade after his son’s demise, Mendell mentioned he’s nonetheless simply as centered on saving different households from comparable tragedies.
“There’s so many people yet to help, so I don’t look back at what we’ve done,” he mentioned. “I look at what we can do.”
You can visit ATLAS’ website to complete an assessment and find treatment options at this link.