Care PLUS

About

Background

The opioid crisis is a major public health issue in America. Treating opioid use requires a continual and comprehensive approach. Parkview has responded to this crisis by expanding its substance use treatment programs and seeking innovative ways of keeping individuals in recovery engaged. Peer recovery coaches (individuals with prior lived experience

with recovery) are one resource for those who are currently recovering (“recoverees”) to receive crucial ongoing support. Peer coaches communicate with recoverees regularly, give them information about resources (e.g., clothing, food, transportation, AA meetings) available in the community, and coach them throughout their recovery. A mobile application could facilitate some aspects of peer coaching (e.g., communicating, sharing resources) by providing a secure medium centralizing conversation and recovery resources.

Aim

To design, create and implement a mobile application ("app") that facilitates communication between peer recovery coaches and recoverees throughout the recovery journey.

Method

We followed a user-centered design (UCD) to design Care PLUS, our mobile application supporting communication between recoverees and peer coaches. We conducted two focus groups with peer coaches and recoverees, designed Care PLUS, and evaluated a prototype of the app with coaches and recoverees during the design phase. We are currently developing a functioning application that we plan on evaluating in a multi-site trial in 2021 onward.

Design Phase (2018-2020)

The process, methods, and results of this phase were described in a journal article published in the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

  • Conducted focus groups with peer coaches and recoverees.
  • Evaluated design concepts with relevant stakeholders (i.e., peer coaches and recoverees).
  • Created a design prototype and tested its usability among peer coaches and recoverees.

App Build (ongoing)

  • Develop a functioning application based on feedback elicited during the design phase.

Trial (planned)

  • Complete a multisite trial of the application, including user experience testing.
Design

At present, the HSIR team is building the application; trials will commence upon its completion.

Application

After refining and finalizing the app, our goal is that it will serve as one important component of a comprehensive and successful substance use treatment program.

screenshots

Sample screens of the PMA application. Clockwise from top-left: Coaches' Inbox (recent messages), Coaches' Recoverees list, Coaches' Conversation screen, Recoverees' Conversation screen, Coaches' Resources screen, Recoverees' Planner screen. (No actual patient data was used for this example). Also published in this article.

Partners

Funding

  • 2018 Amercian Hospital Association Innovation Award

Publications

  • Pater, J., Phelan, C., Cornet, V., Ahmed, R. Colletta, S., Kerrigan, C., Toscos, T. (2021). User-Centered Design of a Mobile App to Support Peer Recovery in a Clinical Setting. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 5(CSCW1), 1-31. https://doi.org/10.1145/3449186

Press

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