Speaker 0 00:00:21 I think I just lost my thing. Okay. Well, good evening. You are two, two KPI and 8.3 Minneapolis, and you're listening to disability on progress where we bring you insights into ideas about and discussions on disability topics. My name is Sam. I'm the host of the show. Thanks so much for tuning in Chris engineers. Thank you, Chris. Charlene doll is my research team. Thank you, Charlene. Good evening, Charlene. Good evening tonight. The topic is vitals app. Um, joining us is Stan Allen. Stan is board of directors for co-chair for arc of Minnesota, also chief communications officer for vitals awareness services. And he's going to be talking to us about the vitals app, continuing to expand nationally to better serve people with disabilities and mental health conditions and joining us as well with him is, um, Candace Ellis. Candace is a formal social worker who, uh, works loosely with people who are closely sorry with people who, um, can greatly benefit from this service. And she will be speaking with about this as well. So good evening.
Speaker 2 00:01:38 Good evening. Thank you for having a Sam.
Speaker 0 00:01:44 Thank you so much for joining me. Can you hear me okay?
Speaker 2 00:01:47 Yes.
Speaker 0 00:01:49 Good. Um, so let's see, I want to start with youth Dan, and talk about what is vitals awareness services and what part do you play in this?
Speaker 2 00:02:02 So, um, I could say a lot about, um, vitals aware services. Um, that's the parent company of, um, the creators of the vitals app. Um, it's a company that's been around for since really 2017. Um, really that rolling in 2018 with bringing on different departments. But, um, we've created technology. We've created, uh, uh, a couple of apps. Um, they're designed to keep people who have various conditions and disabilities safe when they are around first responders, law enforcement, as well as, um, if 9 1, 1 is called and they have an account with us. Um, it's technology that communicates your customize, your special needs, maybe had time when you're not able to, to process or communicate and I can get to more depth to that. Um, I'm the, um, um, communications chief, um, for vitals. Um, we, we're still a small company. Um, so I also wear a lot of hats. I helped with partnership development. I do, um, advocacy partnerships. I mean, that's why I'm canvases here right now because she is one of our partners. So, um, that's enough about me. I, it off to canvas.
Speaker 0 00:03:20 Oh, you're a very interesting person. Come on now. So how about you Candace, um, give us some history about you and how you got involved with vitals aware services.
Speaker 3 00:03:32 All right. So, um, I just want to do a slight correction. So I am a mental health practitioner and my, and my, um, history has been working in the group home under what is called the 2 45 D either foster, um, or community home-based services with DHS since 1999. So I've been in the game for a while. Um, so I, I wouldn't, once they approached me, I, when I heard about Lidells, I was very intrigued and I was interested because of working in the field, starting from a direct care support, helping individuals inside their homes and in the community. I see the benefits of having such an app, especially with high functioning individuals that, um, you don't really see the underlying medical conditions or the intellectual disabilities that can play a challenge with being in the community. So that's how the partnership, um, with coach Candace and those came about.
Speaker 0 00:04:36 Ah, okay. And so you work closely with people, um, involving this, uh, vitals aware,
Speaker 3 00:04:48 Correct. So I'm not only am I a mental health therapist, but I also do help small providers, um, that either want to be come into the service, um, that works with individuals that wouldn't, um, utilize this app or, um, providers that already in service. So I help them, um, with operations, um, from start to finish, as I said, um, this is just a great opportunity for them to assist the clients that they serve.
Speaker 0 00:05:16 So either one of you, I guess, how did this get started?
Speaker 2 00:05:21 Um, I think that's me. Um, I was gonna go into that. So thanks for asking. Um, we, um, we started, um, it was a small group of people who were volunteering, um, and they volunteer for nonprofits. Um, what happens is they find an issue that the nonprofit is trying to address and they try to offer recommendations and solutions to a problem. And so they did focus groups. Um, they started working with the autism society of Minnesota, one of our founding partners. Um, and another partner was the brain a lot like clients. And we did focus groups. We did focus groups with individuals and families. Um, and this came up as a pressing issue. Um, the intersection between people living with different things that make them vulnerable at times and how they interact with law enforcement and first responders, um, how it's, it's, it's unsafe sometimes.
Speaker 2 00:06:20 And it's very, um, it's, it's, I mean, it could lead to even something more tragic. Um, and then we also on started doing focus groups with law enforcement and they kind of agreed that this is an issue. And so we piloted with St. Paul PD, we had, um, 50 individuals and, um, a group of officers that piloted best to make sure everything worked. And, um, then we started expanding in 2018. Um, we reached, um, about 70 different police departments in Minnesota, um, right before COVID hit and we were expanding to different states. Yeah. And then, you know, what happened, then things slowed down.
Speaker 0 00:07:03 No, it happened then these, um, so is this for all people with disabilities or what are the qualifications for using this?
Speaker 2 00:07:12 I, that's a great question too. We started off with autism, but, you know, as we started doing this, um, the people that felt like they could use this, just the, the list grew. I have a list in front of me of different organizations that were, or were conditions like, of course, anxiety, ADHD. We have a number of people who have dementia or Alzheimer's anxiety, people who have panic attacks, panic attacks, bipolar, um, blind, deaf, hard of hearing. Um, we have people who have epilepsy. Um, we have people who schizophrenia, um, the, the list just goes on and on. We have people who are diabetic and so That, you know, that if they have something that could make them vulnerable in a time of need, um, they're a good candidate, people who have allergies, um, also, um, get excited about this. So the list keeps blowing as we, um, huh.
Speaker 0 00:08:16 I see. Um, I don't want to really talk about the cost, but is this the free app or how does that work?
Speaker 2 00:08:27 We don't have to spend a lot of time on costs, but, um, we do, um, we have to charge for the technology. Um, and I, I should explain how it works too. Just so people have an understanding. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:08:37 And we'll get to how it works, but I just want to know, like, so you do charge, does insurance. I'm not really, shouldn't really quote cost on the radio, but does insurance touch any of that? That chart?
Speaker 2 00:08:51 We are fully approved, not insurance, but we're fully approved the Minnesota waiver system. And so people who have a waiver will get reimbursed for the charges. Um, we are approved that way. Um, and as we expand, we intend to do that in every state. Um, and you know, our attitude is if somebody truly can't afford this, um, we're gonna make sure we find a way to get it.
Speaker 0 00:09:17 It may be mentally, you can partner with insurances.
Speaker 2 00:09:21 Yes.
Speaker 0 00:09:24 Would be a benefit. So
Speaker 2 00:09:26 Yeah, you are reading my mind. And I think that insurance companies absolutely get excited about this. Um, and you know, it's, this is something that, you know, it makes sense to for insurance, it's something that mitigates is something that prevents. So, so of course that is a good place for us to be. Um, we also have, and I, I should've mentioned this argument of SOTA, you know, I'm on the board, but, um, before I got on the board, um, they, they were one of our original partners too. And, um, one year what they did with, cause they get, they get donations on a regular basis. Um, and they had one individual that donated, um, basically anybody that wants vitals can have if they go through arc. So we run special, um, um, programs and partnerships with advocacy groups, um, because we really, truly don't want to turn anybody down for these services. It's just too important.
Speaker 0 00:10:20 Talk to me about that vitals app. How does it work? Let's go into the nitty-gritty stuff.
Speaker 2 00:10:27 Kenneth, do you want me to take that or you want to take, you can come in and take that stamp, um, and you can fill in the blanks, the vitals, have we created a couple of apps, one goals, um, with an individual, um, who, who creates the account or their caregiver family member that might be handling their account. Um, so there's an app there that they download. We also have another app that once a, let's say a police department wants to have the technology. Um, they signed a contract with us and they, um, give permission for the officers that they want to have the app to have the app. So there's an app for first responders and they also have this technology where a little hardware, um, it they're called beacons. Um, some of them look like little car fobs or key chains. Um, we have cards, um, we have some that can be attached to a belt or shoe.
Speaker 2 00:11:29 Um, and, and so, and how the technology works. If somebody downloads the app and individual or a family member, they create a profile. The profile can, um, normally has a little thumbnail picture of the individual. Um, a description of them like height and weight. Um, it can have primary, secondary conditions that they have, um, medications, they may be taking, um, behavior triggers, deescalation techniques, all that can be put into the app. Um, and whenever when it, when everything else is in doubt, it can have emergency contact information if I'm in trouble, call this person. And so you create that. And now what happens is when a police department or a first responder agency has our technology. Anytime they come with an 80 feet of an individual with our technology, um, it transmits a secure, private, um, signal. It's a Bluetooth technology to our secure private cloud service.
Speaker 2 00:12:31 And that information is temporarily put on the officer's smartphone. Um, if something is looking like a person needs help, they can click on it. And now they have all the information that the individual or the family member put in there to help that individual what's that once they leave that 80 foot barrier, 80 feet barrier, the information goes away. They don't keep the information. What other things, Sam, um, other, or, um, in our most basic service is our profile. One that allows anybody anywhere, um, to have our technology. You don't have to have a police department. And what that means is, um, we are in partnership with a company called rapid SOS and they have technology and 85% of all the emergency response, nine 11 centers in the country. And so in that situation, you would create an account. Um, and if 9 1, 1 is called because there's an emergency involving in a new and an individual as vitals app. Now that information automatically goes to the dispatcher and you know, what they normally do is they ask a whole bunch of questions while you're in crisis. Um, that eliminates some of that need because all that information is already on their screen, um, automatically because you have an account with us. So that's how it works in a nutshell. I mean, I can answer questions. Sure.
Speaker 0 00:14:01 So first of all, um, what platforms does this work on? Is it just a, um, um, apple platform or do we have both apple and Android?
Speaker 2 00:14:13 It is apple and Google play store. Yeah, well both.
Speaker 0 00:14:17 Okay. So both platforms. All right. And do we have it on computer as well? So like the 9 1 1, how do they do they pull it up on their computer? How does that work?
Speaker 2 00:14:30 I used to have my computer. We no longer because quite frankly, everybody is using a smartphone and then we went to be mobile. And so how it works with, with the dispatchers is let's say somebody, let's say you're at the park. And let's say that, let's just say a child is with his or her mother. And they have an episode. They get hurt. They fall off of a swing or something. They break away, they call 9 1 1. And if that person has one of our accounts, that information, once it connects to the dispatcher, the vitals app information flies onto their screen and they have,
Speaker 0 00:15:14 So I will say that not everyone with a disability has a smartphone. You know, there are still people out there who either, for whatever reason, don't have one, can't use one with their dexterity service, you know, problems. What do you do with that?
Speaker 2 00:15:30 So if so, if an individual doesn't have a smartphone, but they are being helped by a caregiver, then that, that works because somebody else is going to manage their account for them. If, um, if the individual is a self, can I use the term? Self-advocate, I'll use it in this absolutely. This notion. We have a lot of self advocates that manage their own profiles, that they, they do that. Um, if, if a self advocate isn't able to do that, this might not be the best solution for them to be honest with you. And I want to be honest with you about that. It's not the best solution for everybody, but for most people, either, if you're an individual that's taking care of yourself, it's a perfect thing for you. If this, if you're an individual that where people are helping take care of you, it's a perfect thing for you to also, and then the last thing I'll say for individuals that, um, they may like, especially some people with autism, especially young people, they might like remove, they, they, they, they just remove things from them. We have, um, that's why we have folks that are attaching it to, um, a belt or a shoe.
Speaker 0 00:16:47 When you say attaching it, like what the fobs that they have, what is that? Is that just something that shows the information on somebody, you know, on a specific person's phone, if they get, like you said, X amount of feet away from them,
Speaker 2 00:17:04 That's a great question, but the fog doesn't have any information on it. It never does. All the fog does is transmit a signal when, when it gets close enough to first responder and all the information is stored on our secure cloud server. And that information is temporary brought down onto the smartphone. So if you lose the fog, it's not a big deal. You can get another one. Nobody can, there's no information about it.
Speaker 0 00:17:31 I see. But somehow it triggers. How do they know it's that person? Like, if it doesn't have any info, how does it know? Let's say I have a fob, how would they know? It belongs to me?
Speaker 2 00:17:42 So your father has a, a number, an ID number attached to it that we connect to our system, kidney intense number. So
Speaker 0 00:17:54 They can deprogram that number. If I lost the fog.
Speaker 2 00:17:58 Absolutely. They could deep program the number, but also, um, that, that, you know, yeah, you would know if you lost the fobs so that that's a quick thing to happen. Um, but you know, if, if you lose it, a lot of people won't have a clue what's going on with that anyway. And if it doesn't match it, won't, I mean, we haven't had many situations with that as an issue, right?
Speaker 0 00:18:24 Yeah. So then also, um, you talked about, you know, privacy, where, when you, when a police officer son identifying source gets close to the individual, something from the cloud will kind of identify and show them, you know, that they could click on this information. Um, so the information is never stored and they can't download the information, just asking him about privacy issues. You know, privacy is such a huge thing now.
Speaker 2 00:18:56 So I knew he would ask me probably questions,
Speaker 0 00:19:00 Talk about that.
Speaker 2 00:19:01 So, I mean, this is a major thing for us, and this is quite frankly why we partnered with, we partner with autism society and arc Minnesota and pacer center because we get these questions thrown at us. And so we, you know, there's nothing, that's a hundred percent perfect if somebody says that they're lying, but we have bank level security and encryption, and what happens is, and so we, we learn this from the folks that we serve that most people do not want the officer to always have the information. And that's why we created a system where they have it temporarily at a time of need, and then lets them step out of that boundary. They don't have it anymore.
Speaker 0 00:19:45 Okay. That's good to know. Uh, I'd like to play the other side of the coin though. Um, so you said the officers that are interested in having this technology, you can do that, but as you know, especially in Minneapolis, but I think it's happening all over the place here in the U S that please, you know, levels of, of what they do is, is getting changed. And, um, sometimes you don't always have, I'm not sure the correct, but a social worker or somebody who was trained in as much deescalation. So shouldn't it be mandatory that all police officers have something so they can know because we've had a lot of oopses where, you know, if they would have just known that that person was deaf or if that person had, you know, these escalation issues, maybe things could have turned out a little different.
Speaker 2 00:20:45 Um, Candace, do you want to, I mean, I can ask you this question when you come behind me or do you want to,
Speaker 3 00:20:51 No, I can go ahead. Um, I think it should definitely be mandatory. Um, however, I think that's, what's, we're working on that correct stand and make sure that it is in the hands it's and it's available. Um, however it is up to, um, you know, the police department, if they go ahead and download it, use this app, um, we do see the benefits of course, of using it, as you stated, just with how the world is right now. Um, and especially with individuals that have those unforeseen, um, conditions that you can't see with the naked eye, um, to help with the deescalation.
Speaker 2 00:21:31 Yeah, I think that's perfect. Um, I would love for it to be mandatory for all of officers. Um, we are, when we talk to police departments, sheriff departments, we talk about what we've done now is at the beginning, we kind of really left it up to them and we still do that. But now what we do is we, we allow them to have access to the technology slowly. It doesn't matter how many offices they have, they can have access to it. They have to be approved through the system. It can't be a random officer saying it has to go through the department, but, um, yeah, we absolutely believe that this technology should be used by all officers who believe that. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:22:15 Ah, I wonder if there's some way to do more advocacy with this because I mean, as much as you wonder if it can be misused, but you know, obviously if the officer has to be approved, you don't, you don't approve an officer for necessarily for going to whatever they're going to with the problems that are happening. So they just get, you know, they're on duty, they get those things. So I do use the youth for advocating for, um, being able to access this if they need it, regardless of, you know, if they're approved or not.
Speaker 2 00:22:54 Yes. I think that is going to be the next step for us as we play in this state and move to other states, um, advocating public policy, changing, you know, making sure that this is available really everywhere and with, because like, why wouldn't you, I mean, at some point, you know, if, if you were a city and your neighboring city doesn't have the technology, that's not fair to the residents in my opinion. Um, but yeah, I'm glad you picked up on that. I do want to say though, and it's important to mention this, um, the vitals app is no substitution for training and we need officers to be trained. We need them to understand that they need to treat everybody with dignity and respect and cater and you know, this does not help, you know, if people have implicit bias, it can help a little bit because it can, you know, if you have five officers and all of them have the vitals app and everybody's and things flap on their smartphone, then, then somebody there is going to see there's something going on with this individual. And so maybe pause for a minute before you act. And so there's some of that going on, but this is not a substitute for training and that we always have to stress that.
Speaker 0 00:24:10 So I want to talk a little bit about, um, how, why this is spread is you said, now it's on, it's on an app. So how many places currently have it? What's the idea of getting this kind of through the whole us?
Speaker 2 00:24:32 Um, we, we have about 50 or so active departments, um, in, um, in Minnesota now. Um, and we're reengaging communities right now because quite frankly, when everybody was inside, um, there were there wasn't a lot of internet time, so we we're really in the process of re-engaging communities. Um, and that's been fun. Um, but we, um, what we've done and I think it's important to mention again, is because we have this profile nine 11 service we've been able to expand in almost every state, um, not, not a huge footprint in every state, but because if now, because if you, all you have to do is have an emergency response center or 9 1 1 center that has the technology, it doesn't matter where you're located. Um, so, but as far as expansion, um, of course we've done like some companies where we've kind of done a lot of social media and digital marketing and, and that's, that's been okay.
Speaker 2 00:25:38 But really what has been really exciting is we have really started digging into partnerships. Um, we feel like we don't want to necessarily be the expert, but we want to work with the people who are already working with people like arc Minnesota, like autism society. They already have, um, constituents that trust them that are utilizing their services. And so what we want to do a lot of times is be introduced. We want them to introduce us to the clients because we feel like that's a better way to do it on. So we're, we're, we're, we're expanding that way. Um, and, um, we, we, um, we're, we're starting to bring on what we have to do is we have to bring on, um, communities of people just as much as we have to bring on first responders. And so for instance, we're going to make an announcement in a, in a few weeks that we're going to Colorado for the first time. There's a city there.
Speaker 0 00:26:37 Wow. Congratulations.
Speaker 2 00:26:38 Thank you. Thank you. If the faucet is turned back on it. And so, and, um, so we're going to announce that city and what we've learned because we've had time to learn is that, you know, it's great for the police department to have it, but it's more important for individuals to have it. So even before we get there, we're contacting advocacy groups, organizations that have access to people that could use this. And so they know that we're coming. And so that's how we're looking at doing it on Candace. You probably could talk about how we're doing it with really a great example.
Speaker 3 00:27:16 Um, yeah. So as I mentioned earlier, I work with small providers, um, within the twin cities, that service individuals that can benefit from this. So, um, enjoy my process with the intake. When individuals reach out to me to begin that process of becoming a provider, um, I walked them through the steps of what the resources that's available to them as a provider, as well as to the individuals that they serve because of, uh, as a provider, it's great to have such resources because I said the individuals that they serve with typically in the, um, in the community on their own, um, majority of the time, yes, they do have staff some of the times, but staff is not with them 24 hours, seven days a week. So for them to have, um, the beacon on them when they're out and about, um, in the society and in the community, um, even though staff is helping them with, um, how to, uh, you know, kind of deescalate on their own, um, a device such as this, this is helpful when, and if they should, um, become into a sticky situation, whether it's with the police department or first responders.
Speaker 3 00:28:28 Um, and even if there's in a group, home setting is beneficial as well, because if the client, um, is what are called adverse behaviors and, um, first responders come and they have such a device on them when they pull up, they're able to know and assess the situation and to help the staff instead of being, um, more of a, a contradiction in the sense in that situation.
Speaker 0 00:28:59 So I want to talk about that individual type of approach a little bit, as far as, um, you know, obviously you're, you're wanting the individual to be a good advocate for themselves with this. What happens if they like fall unconscious or something, does the app prepare with anything else that it might work with? Like, it can tell if you've fallen, can you tell, can it tell if you're not responsive,
Speaker 2 00:29:31 We don't have access to that technology yet. Um, we are constantly talking to companies that want to partner with us that have certain things like that. And so down the road, we're going to have some exciting announcements, some sure, um, where we w you know, we don't cover everything, um, what we could have others where we integrate the technology for that. But as of today, um, we can't tell that, but I can say like, if an individual has the vitals or beacon and they fall, and they're unconscious, the, um, the beacon is still working. So when somebody approaches them, they're still going to be able to get that information regardless.
Speaker 0 00:30:19 Uh, my understanding is that the apple watch does something with this. So what the, um, thing that I was explaining, so I wonder, might be an interesting pair in the future to try to, you know, see if there's some way that the vitals can work hand in hand with it. Cause I could see that being a great thing where it would alert somebody if somebody had fallen unconscious or a diabetic was having sugar issues. And then when they got there bang, they had some of the information so they could understand what was wrong.
Speaker 2 00:30:54 Yes, Sam, you're going to get me in trouble if I talk about what we're working on, They going to get me in trouble. But I just think that's a great idea though.
Speaker 0 00:31:12 Ah, excellent. Okay. All right. Well, I'm excited because I know people who need that, you know, and I think it's super important to, you know, it's one thing, if you have a watch or something that tells you, um, that alerts, if you've fallen and if you can't respond that it calls nine 11, but that's all great and fine, but when the person gets there, how do they know? What's what, so, um, yeah. So there you go. There's your next assignment? That could be interesting actually. Um, can you tell us a little bit about the different ways that you've seen this app help people?
Speaker 2 00:31:58 Oh, this is the fun part. Um, we have amazing stories, um, and we can kind of spread them out. I wanted to tell I've got two or three stories. I will tell I'll start off with a young man named Marcus Marcus lives. Um, several probably about five years ago, maybe six years ago now. Um, first of all, Marcus, um, um, lives with Asperger's and, um, he's still he's in her twenties now and he needs support from his mom. Um, but he's able to kind of, you know, do a number of things, um, play sports and play video games. I mean, he does a lot of things, um, on his own, but he does need support. Well, Marcus, um, a few years ago was hanging with some friends, um, and he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. And the officers that responded to the scene, um, told the people to disperse to leave the thing.
Speaker 2 00:33:00 And Marcus did not process, could not process quick enough and he didn't obey any of those commands. And he ended up getting taken down and injured by the police. Um, a year later a similar situation happened involving Marcus. It was in the Metro transit bus system. It was well-documented in the media. Um, and Marcus was tased multiple times and our team at the time that we're working on this technology, they saw that, um, we were able to get in contact with Maria Marcus's mom. And we said, we're working on something that could help Marcus. Um, so Marcus ended up being in one of the test groups. Um, Marcus was in a St Paul school building one day. Um, there was an Altru location in that building, um, which escalates people, sometimes Elise responded to the scene. They got in the hallway and the vitals that kicked in and they had all of Marcus's information.
Speaker 2 00:34:00 They were able to deescalate the situation and nobody got hurt. Um, so we were excited about that. Um, I've got, I've got another story that I can tell real quick if that's okay. Then I got a third story. That's amazing, but like in that, and we can spread them out, but the other story is Kaitlin Kaitlin. Um, and I still know the families. Um, Kaitlin is her, her, her, they describe it as cognitive disabilities at the time. That's how they described it. Um, very, she was very active in special Olympics. Um, she had a part-time job, um, and, and she was able to drive a little bit and what she memorized her routes. Um, I can say it was, she had a job, a part-time job at Walmart, and she was able to memorize her routes from home to her job. And so she is maximizing her independence that's and that's what it's all about.
Speaker 2 00:34:55 Well, she got signed on when she saw that she's she's in undercoat. She lives in Dakota county. So she thought this would be perfect. Her parents thought this would be perfect for her. And, um, so she got signed on the vitals early on. Um, so one evening she was, um, on her way home from work. And unfortunately the highway that she normally drives on was shut down because there was a traffic fatality, so they were blocking off. And then the other route that she knows, um, was closed due to road construction. So now may be panicking and nervous. Um, she calls her mom, her mom says, you know, just circle back around park and ask the officers they'll help you. And so she did that. The only problem was earlier in the day, the officers got a call wanting them to be on the lookout for underage drinkers.
Speaker 2 00:35:51 Cause it was a big house party that night and look out for people 18 to 25 and Kaitlin was in that age group. So when the officer approached her car, um, Caitlin was very nervous. Um, she was her verse. Her voice was shaky and she was talking slower than normal. And so the officer immediately thought she might be impaired. And so he called for backup and, um, they were going to put her through the DWI protocol. Um, fortunately the officer that responded in his vehicle to the scene, they had recently got vitals before he got out of his car. Um, he got an alert and he was able to identify Katelyn. He was able to see that she had a disability and he approached her in a totally different way. And they ended up escorting her home instead of putting her through WPI protocol. So that was a success story.
Speaker 0 00:36:50 Okay. So this is exactly my point with this should be mandatory for all officers.
Speaker 2 00:36:56 Yes. I agree. A hundred
Speaker 0 00:36:58 Percent. You just made that whole point for me. I didn't even have to, I wouldn't even have had to stay anything earlier. So I, I circle back with, um, this is going to be important thing, I think especially, well now during this time, you know, I, as we've been in the COVID time, I realized that the numbers are going down for now and hopefully we're on the, the down slide of getting better. But I think the world has made a shift and I feel like society has shifted and it's much more likely to have people who are, you know, doing whatever they do for whatever reason they do it. And it's not always good. And so there is going to be a difference between how you handle somebody with a disability, regardless of if they're up to something they shouldn't be, or if they really just need help.
Speaker 0 00:37:54 And they know, and it's just, they're in the wrong place at the wrong time. So I really would, I don't know how you can, what you can do to do more, you know, advocacy about pushing the police force to have this, like it should be on board for all of them, but I do think that's an important, you know, thing to do. And, and let me go one step further and saying, there should also be a way to tag what officer that deals with these vitals apps, um, is dealing with the situation at the time. So if a mistake is made that there can be some learning involved, you know, that, that they can correct them.
Speaker 2 00:38:40 So I would love for Cannes to take part of that because I know she has a network if he talks to different organizations at the state level and local level, that might be interested in things like that. But I will say that that when we have our technology does allow for us to know exactly the officer that has an interaction folks. Now we will not release that information in the aggregate. I mean, but, but we have access to that information. So we do know, um, and we've had a couple of occasions where, where the department asks for it. So we do have some of that information.
Speaker 0 00:39:25 I do this as a time. Uh, oh, I'm sorry. Were you going to do,
Speaker 2 00:39:28 I was talking Canada's because I know Candice, you know, you mentioned organizations like the multicultural. I mean, there's just different groups that they kind of live in that public policy world, and this is why having partners like Candace might help get it to get this stuff in the right hands.
Speaker 3 00:39:48 Yeah. So that's definitely, um, one of my main, um, missions in a sense is to get this, as I said, cause I see the benefits on both on both ends being, um, in the community hands as well as in the individuals that needs at hand. So I have a part of a couple of different organizations, um, that deal primarily with individuals and, um, in that assisted living or group home settings. So the plan is to get in the forefront and getting in front of them and let them know that this, this happens here and the benefits for it from, as I said, from our perspective,
Speaker 0 00:40:29 Um, this is usually the time at some point that I tell my research person to unmute. So get ready to unmute, please. Charlene. And I want to know if you have any questions for this, these people in regards to the vitals app,
Speaker 3 00:40:49 I just want to re visit, uh, the app itself is, is stable and it would be hard for somebody to, to, uh, breach it zap, uh, correct.
Speaker 2 00:41:04 Yes. We, um, um, one of our founders, um, he's amazing. He, he was one of the founders for the technology that started the digitizing more digit loans. And so he lived in a world of, I call it, he call it bank level security in where, you know, we're not the company that's going to say nothing ever happened because too many companies something has happened, but we're up there in that level of, we have that bank level security that encryption that we are protected. This is the most important information that a person can share. And so we have to protect it. We have to protect it.
Speaker 3 00:41:54 Okay. That's good to know because yeah, you're pretty serious things that people have going on and, uh, officers learn how to deal with it. It's going to make things a little bit better for a lot of folks. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:42:11 And Charlene, the other thing is, um, you know, part of our agreement is you're volunteering to give this information temporarily to the officers. And so you can't see me on the radio, but I am a black man with a couple of black kids and you know, and, and I, um, I worked for this company. I'm a leader in this company. And of course I hate, I have concerns about, about how that interaction can go. So when I say, this is not about, this is we need people to be trained. We need people to treat everybody the way they should be treated. And of course, vitals as a tool and a resource that can help give them more information in a timely fashion, but they need to know how to do it in a trained way anyway.
Speaker 3 00:42:56 Yes, exactly.
Speaker 0 00:42:58 Is there anything else you'd like to cover in regards to this app, guys?
Speaker 2 00:43:05 I love, I love it. Candace. You could go first if you have anything.
Speaker 3 00:43:11 I think I don't
Speaker 2 00:43:13 Have anything. Okay. Um, I've got one final story I want to tell. So my favorite story is, um, it's a gentleman named Jack and he lives in the Baxter Brainerd area and those departments got signed on pretty early. And Jack, he has, um, several conditions that make him vulnerable, um, bipolar depression, schizophrenia. And so Jack is taking meds that make him feel like he might want to hurt himself sometimes. And so when he saw this, he was like, I got to get on because I already know. Sometimes I feel like I wanna hurt myself. And so I need to be proactive. And so he, he got on and he really spent a lot of time to, um, create his profile and just in case if he needed it. And so, and then, so when one Saturday evening he was feeling like he might hurt himself.
Speaker 2 00:44:18 He called his brother, does his brother called 9 1 1? Um, Jack has a beacon in his glove compartment of his truck and he carries one on him all the time. And so the dispatchers called, um, um, the first responders, um, and Jack was going to hurt himself. And so before they knocked on the door, um, they got alerted all his information and, um, Jack his profile read, you know, if I want to hurt myself, please repeat over and over and over to me that I don't please keep telling me that I want to live, talk about my wife, talk about my two girls, just keep telling me over and over and over again. And I want to live, um, about 45 minutes into it. Um, they talked him down, um, and we received a message for him the next day saying, I think you guys saved my life last night. Um, after hearing that story, I still get goosebumps and it makes this worthwhile to me.
Speaker 3 00:45:24 I have one more question. Oh yeah. Cool. Um, have you guys, uh, started working with the department of veterans affairs?
Speaker 2 00:45:35 We, you know, that keeps coming up as a great partner and we haven't yet we were having initial conversations, um, with veterans' organizations prior to COVID. Um, so we know that that that's on our radar and it's a perfect group for us. Um, he, yeah, cause Jack, um, if PTSD, um,
Speaker 3 00:45:59 I used to work with that, so I kind of
Speaker 2 00:46:01 Up, yeah. Okay. Great question.
Speaker 0 00:46:07 You sure. I can't tell you or convince you to tell me what you're working on. What would you like to see for the future of this app? Either one of you or both?
Speaker 2 00:46:23 Let I go Candace, because I've been talking a lot.
Speaker 3 00:46:27 I think we're on the same wavelength anyways. I would love to see this in the hands of all first responders, all police officers, um, as well as with individuals that need it in the, in the community, that would be the ideal situation. Um, yeah, so,
Speaker 2 00:46:48 And I would love to see this app become V app for safety and security and independence for anybody that needs it. And I would love to partner with the right organizations or companies that are already, that already have technology. So we can embed this into that technology. That way people have another layer of protection and I want it to be for everybody to have, I want it to be something that is, is, is just normalized in life. And because I, I, I believe the more that we share this, the more conditions keep adding up. Everybody has that might make them vulnerable. And this is a way to communicate when you can't.
Speaker 0 00:47:36 Right. Well, you guys, I wanted to thank you so much for giving your time, and this is a volunteer effort for all of us. So thank you so much for coming on the show. I really appreciate it. And, um, good luck on the app. And I look forward to seeing more and hearing more from you.
Speaker 2 00:47:57 Thank you for having
Speaker 0 00:47:59 You are so welcome. This is disability and progress. The views expressed on the shore. Not necessarily those of cafe or its board of directors. My name is Sam. I'm the host of this show. Chris is engineers tonight. Thank you, Chris. Charlene doll is my research team. Thank you, Charlene. We've been speaking with Dan Allen downs, the board of directors co-chair for our Minnesota. He's also chief communications officer for vitals aware services. We were talking about vitals app and continuing to expand nationally to better serve people with disabilities and mental health conditions. We're also joined as well by Candice Ellison. Candice is a mental health practitioner who spoke about how closely she works with people that can benefit from this app. This is Kathy I'm 90.3 FM Minneapolis and i.org. Remember to check out our podcasts as we do have many of them now. And if again, if you want to be on my email list, please email
[email protected]. Feel free to just, um, topics or anything else you'd like to talk about on the show. Fresh fruit is up next. Thanks for listening. Good night.
