Findhelp Partners with South Dakota Department of Health to Help Residents Get the Social Care Services They Need

AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Findhelp is proud to announce that it has been awarded a contract with the State of South Dakota's Department of Health to build a statewide social care referral system, known as a Community Information Exchange (CIE), that will connect South Dakotans in need of social care services with the providers who can help them, with the goal of improving health outcomes among high-risk and underserved populations in the state. Findhelp is a technology company that connects individuals and community providers through an efficient and easy-to-navigate platform while protecting privacy and tracking outcomes in a closed-loop referral system.

Findhelp will bring together the State of South Dakota government, Helpline Center, and other service providers to build an online system to screen and assess individuals and connect them to organizations that can help. Findhelp will support interoperability through an integration with the state's Health Information Exchange (HIE); the CIE will provide information about social needs and predetermined health data to providers and community partners and manage service and referral requests. This new system will help eliminate many of the barriers currently preventing  people from finding and connecting with the services designed to support them, and will provide a single, secure platform to improve community care coordination.

Findhelp is already a brand South Dakotans know, trust, and have been using since 2015. From April 2020 to now, 240,000 state residents have conducted 900,000 searches on the findhelp platform, resulting in nearly 160,000 connections between individuals in need and social care providers. The findhelp database has 2,914 national, state, and local social care programs supporting South Dakotans today.

"We are grateful for the relationships we have built with South Dakotans over the past eight years and are honored to partner with the state's Department of Health to reach even more residents," said Erine Gray, founder and CEO of findhelp. "Individuals know they can count on findhelp to connect them with the social care services they need, easily and compassionately, while protecting their privacy."

Addressing social needs such as housing and food insecurity is critical to advance health equity among underserved populations with higher risks, including racial and ethnic minority groups and people living in rural communities.

"We are committed to making sure South Dakotans get the help they need, when and where they need it," said Rachel Sehr, Community Engagement Director at the South Dakota Department of Health. "Findhelp is the perfect partner to help us achieve this vital mission with dignity and ease."

Findhelp works with more than 500 of America's largest health plans, hospital systems, government municipalities, educational institutions, and cause organizations to address social determinants of health. The findhelp platform enables customers across industries to bring social care to their patients, members, students, constituents, and communities.           

About findhelp

Findhelp is the company modernizing America's social safety net for anyone who needs help or helps others. We've built a comprehensive platform of products and services that make it easy to connect people to resources, follow them on their journey, and track impact in a fast and reliable way. Our industry-leading social care network includes more than half a million local, state, and national programs that serve every ZIP Code in the country, from rural areas to major metropolitan centers. Findhelp is headquartered in Austin, Texas and has been enabling healthcare, government, education and other organizations to connect people with the social care resources that serve them, with privacy and security, since 2010. For more information, visit https://company.findhelp.com.

About South Dakota's Department of Health:

The South Dakota Department of Health (SD DOH) strives to promote, protect, and improve the health of every South Dakotan with information, licensing, and more. The SD DOH is dedicated to keeping South Dakotans healthy and strong, while providing them, health care providers, and administrators with the most up-to-date, health-related information and guidance to help them make the best decisions for themselves, their families, and their businesses. Learn more at https://doh.sd.gov/.

SOURCE Findhelp