CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A Pritzker administration initiative aimed at simplifying the search for mental health resources has now gained a powerful, big tech ally: Google.
The Children’s Behavioral Health Transformation Initiative was first introduced by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in March 2022 to evaluate and redesign the delivery of behavioral health services for children in the state of Illinois.
“With Google’s help, we are harnessing the extraordinary power and potential for tech innovation to expand the human service sector and its ability to meet the needs of Illinois’ youth,” Pritzker said at a news conference from Google’s Chicago headquarters in Fulton Market.
The goal: to create an easily searchable, one-stop portal that consolidates Illinois youth mental health agency resources.
Karen Sauder, the site lead for Google Chicago and the president of Google’s Global Clients and Agencies Solutions, the company was “very excited to jump on board” after Pritzker called and asked them to be part of the process.
Google Public Sector Director Chris Heim addressed privacy concerns.
“That’s one of the other foundational principles that Google has put into its cloud: We are a HIPAA-compliant organization, and we will make sure that every single thing that’s put into this portal is kept safe and private,” said Hein.
This first-in-the-nation partnership between Illinois health agencies and Google is intended to serve as a blueprint that can be used more broadly across the country and the globe.
The hope being that this new portal, which has been called BEACON, will go online for Illinois families during summer 2024.
“You don’t get that frustrating feeling like you have to have a PHD in human services to be able to know where to go,” said Hein. “Just use natural language to do searches to upload your documents and have them understood.”
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