The MENTAL Health Prize Challenge – Second Webinar

Gilbert Thompson: Hello, good afternoon and on behalf of the Administration for 

Community Living (ACL) I want to welcome everyone to our second informational webinar 

on Mobilizing and Empowering the Nation's Technology to Address Loneliness and Social 

Isolation Prize Challenge, also called the MENTAL Health Challenge. Again my name is 

Gilbert Thompson with the Administration for Community Living. Today's webinar will 

provide a high level overview of the MENTAL Health Challenge, share applicable resources 

for solvers, cover upcoming activities and address any questions you may have. A few 

housekeeping notes, the link for closed captioning will be shared via the chat feature. All 

audio will be remained muted throughout the webinar, and we encourage you to use a chat 

feature for any questions. Please feel free to chat in the questions or comments throughout the 

session. When doing so, please select to send your message to all panelists. Lastly, a 

recording of this session along with the slides will be made available following the session. 

As I mentioned earlier, this is our second informational webinar. There is a recording, a slide 

deck, and other resources of the July 9th webinar located at acl.gov/mental. At this time, I 

would like to introduce and welcome Mary Lazare Principle Deputy and Administrator of the 

Administration for Community Living. Mary.

Mary Lazare: Hey, Gilbert. Thank you very much and ladies and gentlemen, good 

afternoon. And thank you so much for your interest in the METNAL Health Challenge. 

MENTAL is the acronym for Mobilizing and Empowering the Nation's Technology to 

Address Loneliness and Social Isolation. I also want to thank you for spending your time to 

learn more about the Challenge and to have your questions answered as well. I would like to 

acknowledge the leadership of Kelly Cronin, who on this line, she’s the Deputy 

Administrator for the Center of Innovative Partnerships at ACL, as well as Lori Gerhard, the 

Director of the Office of Integrated Programs. Their leadership has been key to the 

development of this prize challenge and I want to thank them. One of the things I want to call 

your attention to is our agenda today, I will introduce and will you hear from one of our 

partners, Dr. Dorothy Fink. Following that, Lori Gerhard, who I just mentioned, will review 

some of the resources and go through some of the specifics of the prize challenge for all of 

you. Lori will then talk about an upcoming webinar and opportunities on getting more 

questions and more information. Then will you have time at 3:35 to ask questions and get 

things answered as soon as possible and then we'll wrap up and close.

The challenge is designed to catalyze the development of a technology program that will 

become a clearing house for resources that can mitigate social isolation, loneliness and as 

well engage people in activity that supports their well-being. We hope to have program 

services apps, technology, tablets, robotics, those types of resources as well as access to 

radio, TV and telephonic resources. What we know is this, people don't know where to go or 

what all is available to assist them or their loved ones or a customer or a client, a patient. So, 

what we hope and anticipate is that the following the designation of the prize winner, the 

platform would quickly evolve and become public facing and available for use. Because we 

know social isolation has been an issue for a long time and it's going to continue to be an 

issue. But the pandemic has put this problem on steroids and we're really focused on this 

prototype becoming public facing as soon as possible. Social isolation impacts health in many 

ways and we've heard that. This is one of the reasons why this challenge is presented in 

partnership with the Office of Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH) at Health and Human 

Services. I would also like to recognize right now some of our other federal partners, which 
include the Federal Communications Commission, and Veterans Administration. Both of 

them are highly engaged and involved in supporting and executing this prize challenge and as 

well I would like to recognize the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, 

OSTP, for their support as well to bring this Challenge forward. So right now what I would 

like to do is introduce Dr. Dorothy Fink, the Deputy of Assistant Secretary for Women’s 

Health and the Director of the Office on Women’s Health at OASH. As a Georgetown 

University undergraduate, she was focused on health studies. Dr. Fink developed a passion 

for public health. She received her medical degree from Georgetown University School of 

Medicine. She completed her combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics Residency at the 

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. She then completed a National Institute of Health 

Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Endocrinology and Metabolism at the Columbia University 

College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. While there, Dr. Fink was selected as a 

Women’s Health Scholar. She brings to OASH extensive experience in treating women’s 

health issues. She is board certified in endocrinology, internal medicine, and pediatrics and is 

recognized as a valued leader on topics such as diabetes, nutrition and bone health. Dr. 

Dorothy Fink is a colleague and has become a valued and trusted friend. At this time, I would 

like to turn the mic over to Dr. Dorothy Fink. Dorothy.

Dr. Dorothy Fink: Oh, Mary, thank you so much for that. And I appreciate that you brought 

up my love of bones which I will comment on an upcoming slide. I want to look at the next 

slide that really goes into more detail of the statistics of what you have alluded to in terms of 

the number of people in the United States that will really be increasing and increasing over 

the upcoming years in terms of the people who are really most at risk for social isolation and 

loneliness. You can see the staggering number of adults in the United States that are socially 

isolated and the impact on their health as well. We all appreciate the impact of a COVID-19 

pandemic and how in order to keep our most at risk populations safe that we're asking them 

to socially isolate and this is only exacerbating some of the other unintended consequences of 

keeping the COVID-19 at bay in these populations. I would like to go to the next slide.

We see some of the medical side of the impact of social isolation. And as an endocrinologist, 

we think about healthcare providers and we are always thinking of the whole person and 

thinking about how it's not just that they come to you for the heart disease or the underlying 

neurological conditions. It's what other social factors are playing into all of this. When we see 

here the impact of social isolation on premature mortality, the impacts on higher risk of 

dementia, heart failure, stroke. I will also comment from my background with bone health. 

The number of patients that we see with hip fractures and when they go home after being 

discharged from the hospital after a major hip surgery, we see these patterns when they are 

already in a social isolation state pre-hip fracture, when they go back with a hip fracture, it's 

really something that -- we're not just focused on getting the bones back together but what is 

the social situation outside of that and how that impacts their long term health implications, 

because it is such a real thing. You can see here, too, the increased risk of hospitalizations 

and as well the accompanying amount of funds that go toward all of those complications. 

Next slide, please.

So, here is where we get to the challenge. And we're thrilled to have all of you on the line 

today. And we are really looking to engage with you all and to hear from you to think about 

how we can develop innovative ideas and solutions for a software platform that will increase 

awareness of, access to, and use of social engagement technologies and programming to help 

curtail the impact of loneliness and social isolation. Our goal is to identify solutions that 

assess socially isolated individuals, and match them with appropriate technology tools and 
social engagement programming that best really meets their needs. Additionally, as part of 

this challenge, we're looking at developing consumer facing apps and a clearing house with 

built in algorithms to match people's interest, accessibility needs to social engagement 

programming, technology, software and apps and enable and enrollment and fulfilment of 

needs. Through this challenge, and we'll get into details on the next slide, we really 

appreciate that it's really complex and we're really looking to really get at the real needs of so 

many people in our country right now who are really feeling that added burden of social 

isolation due to COVID-19 and we really appreciate the tight time line we are all on with all 

this. We think a teamed up approach from organizations will really lead to the best innovation 

with many minds coming together.

If we could go to the next slide, you will see the total prize purse is $750,000. The challenge 

will compete in two phases with cash prizes awarded in each phase. With Phase One the total 

prize fund is $150,000 with up to 3 finalists, each winning $50,000. Then moving on to Phase 

2 and total prize funds of $550,000. The winner will be awarded up to $450,000 with a 

runner-up of up to $100,000. The top two contenders will also present their solutions at the 

CES meeting in 2021 and the finalist and winner will be eligible for a bonus prize of $50,000. 

So, before I turn it over to Lori, I will say on behalf of OASH and Admiral Brett Giroir, and

our whole team, we appreciate all of you coming together for this and. I think of all of the 

patients I have cared for in my life that desperately need resources like this, so we thank you 

all for your hard work in this area and can't wait to hear from all of you. So Lori, I will turn it 

over to you.

Lori Gerhard: Thank you so much, Dr. Fink. And if we could go to the next slide. In this 

section of the webinar we really want to highlight resources that we posted since the July 9th 

webinar and be sure you are aware these resources because they will be helpful as you are 

working to develop the solution. So, we'll be highlighting things like the Eldercare Locator, 

educational webinars that we've offered since July 9th that use technology to address 

socialize social isolation. These educational webinars will be really helpful, highlighting 

again the ADRC partnership and their critical role with the solution. The July 9th MENTAL

Health Challenge Informational webinar. We have updates on CES 2021. We also have some 

updates on the report that ADvancing States published that we'll be sharing that highlight 

practices going on or solutions that are in place within states. And the MENTAL Health 

Innovation Challenge platform. And so I would like to introduce my colleague, Sherri Clark. 

Sherri leads many initiatives within ACL and does a fabulous job at helping to ensure that 

older adults and people with disabilities get access to the information that they need to live 

full lives in the community. One of the projects that Sherri leads is the Eldercare Locator. We 

can move to the next slide. There you go.

Sherri Clark: I'm sorry. I'm unmuted from my phone but obviously not from the screen. I 

certainly apologize. I just wanted to thank you so much, Lori, for the opportunity to speak 

about the Eldercare Locator just briefly this afternoon because I know you have a full agenda. 

The Eldercare Locator was established in 1991 and became a full service in the fall of 1992. 

It's a service that's funded by the Administration on Aging and Administration for 

Community Living. The locator is a service that helps connect older people in your family 

and caregivers to local aging programs and services. The Eldercare Locator consists of a call 

center where individuals can speak to a live information specialist Monday through Friday. 

And there is also an afterhours automated IVR system that can connect people as well 

through an automated way. There is also a website that offers additional resources and I will 

spend most of my time talking about that resource. Next slide, please.
The Eldercare Locator website contains resources and consumer publications on a myriad of 

topics of interest to older adults and their caregivers. The key feature of the website is a 

geographical searchable database that provides information on aging services by zip code or 

by city and state. Currently the database can help older people and their families connect to 

the following services: general information and assistance services that help assess people's 

needs at the local development; Aging and Disability Resource Centers, which can help 

people navigate the long-term care systems in their state and local areas; Area Agencies on 

Aging, which as many of you know, are the local resource for aging programs and 

communities; state agencies on aging; elder abuse prevention services; health insurance 

counseling; programs around the country, legal service programs; and finally, our long term

ombudsman program. Next slide.

A few years ago, there was an initiative with the government and they called it freeing data 

and making data available for others to use, not just holding it at the federal level. So, at that 

time, the Eldercare Locator worked with our IT folks to develop an Eldercare Locator 

application programming interface or API which allows developers the opportunity to tap 

into the Eldercare Locator database. So developers who may be interested in accessing this 

data can just go to the Eldercare Locator website at www.eldercare.acl.gov. On there, if you

scroll down there is a registration where people can register to gain access. We've have seen

people use this data quite a bit in developing apps, including this information into 

applications, and other ways to connect people to services at the local level. We hope that 

you, if you're interested, get good basic information for connecting to the information on 

older adult, that you do you consider exploring the API. I just want to thank you again for 

your interest in this important challenge. Social isolation is critical at this time it. And as 

Mary I think pointed out that we're at a point now where the COVID situation only 

exacerbated this important issue. I will turn it back to you Lori, thank you so much for the 

opportunity.

Lori Gerhard: Well thank you so much, Sherri. If we could go on to the next slide. So, since 

July 9th, we worked with some coordinating organizations or collaborating organizations, 

working together at the national level to address social isolation. And these organizations 

bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise about technology solutions that could be available 

that would help people address social isolation and social programming. And so, the 

organizations came together and they hosted a two-part webinar. The first part was offered on 

June 26th and there is a link on the MENTAL Health prize challenge.gov website. As well as 

acl.gov, we have a MENTAL Health Challenge page too, that we keep up to date with the 

same resources that we put on the challenge.gov posting. But can you access these webinars, 

they are recorded and there is information about different technology solutions, as well as 

different social engagement programming, that can be used to address social isolation. So we 

wanted to point those out and highlight them. Move on to the next slide.

The Aging and Disability Resource Center/No Wrong Door System is an initiative that each 

state has and these organizations are led at the state level. It really is a state long term service 

and support access system and the ADRC or Aging and Disability Resource Center/No 

Wrong Door System is really important that that organization is part of the solution. They are 

critical partners to design solutions because they interact with the populations we're trying to 

reach -- older adults, people with disabilities, Veterans, people with low income and minority 

groups. And so, we encourage you to reach out to the Aging and Disability Resource 

Center/No Wrong Door System as you develop your teams, and to find or connect with an 

Aging and Disability Resource Center/No Wrong Door System we have a link for contacts 
for each of the 56 states and territories. If you're unable to find that information or for some 

reason the connection isn't occurring, please e-mail the MENTAL Health challenge at ACL 

e-mail inbox and we'll get you connected. Next slide, please.

So, the July 9th MENTAL Health Challenge informational webinar is the first webinar we 

offered on this challenge. The recording is posted for that webinar, the PowerPoint slides and 

a transcript are in this slide deck and we also have that information hyperlinked so you will 

be able to locate it. Move on to the next slide.

We want to make a very important announcement and also thank our partner the Consumer 

Technology Association Foundation who sponsors or sets up the CES 2021. And this week 

the Consumer Technology Association announced CES 2021 is going all digital. So this is 

great news in that it's going to allow more individuals and organizations to really engage in 

CES 2021. So we're still planning to have the winners and finalists present at CES 2021. We 

have a session set aside for that presentation, we will announce the winners through that 

platform and we encourage you all to stay tuned to be ready for that particular event. To learn 

more about that event there is a link on this slide that will take to you more information about 

CES 2021. And the other big news is that we had asked that you set aside some of your prize 

money to travel to Las Vegas for CES 2021, so that prize money will not need to be used for 

that purpose.

We can move on to the next slide. The other-announcement we want to make is the 

ADvancing States, since COVID-19 has been occurring, has been doing an inventory with 

states to learn about social engagement programming and technologies and solutions that they 

have underway in their states. They published a report and that latest report you can access 

using the hyperlink in the slide deck. They shared with us today that they have the third 

version of this report will be posted this Friday. And you can access that report this Friday at 

ADvancing States’ website which is also hyperlinked in this slide. Move on to the next slide.

So we have some really exciting news. We have a contractor supporting our work with this 

MENTAL Health Challenge. And we're working currently with the contractor to develop a 

MENTAL Health challenge innovation platform. What is this platform? It is an opportunity 

for registrants to be able to enter your information when you submit for September 8th. In the 

meantime, though, between now and September 8th, the platform once it's set up you will 

receive an e-mail. If you register for the Challenge, the team leader that registers will receive 

an e-mail from our contractor with information about how to log in to the Challenge platform. 

You will be asked to begin to populate information about your team and really it will be the 

start of what your eventual submission will be. What's very exciting about this platform is 

that it will provide an opportunity also for teams to collaborate and match with other teams. 

As Dr. Fink had mentioned, this solution that we're looking for we expect that there will be 

representations or inclusions of people with expertise in artificial intelligence, people with 

expertise in database development, people with expertise in user center design, people with 

expertise in understanding of the needs or social engagement solutions, program solutions, 

and social engagement technologies. The team members that perhaps understand and serve 

this population. The dynamics and the diversity of the teams will be really important in 

getting to the best solution. So, we're excited about the platform and this opportunity that it 

will present too for teams that are interested in collaborating with other teams to do that. 

We'll move on to the next slide.

So we wanted to highlight a few upcoming activities. I mentioned that you will receive an email with instructions, team leads will receive an e-mail with instructions on how to access 
the MENTAL Health Challenge platform, you should expect that within the next two weeks. 

And then, in addition, we're having conversations around creating a booking link which 

would be an opportunity for teams to engage with the MENTAL Health Innovation 

Challenge teams, so it would be perhaps like a 15 minute segment that you can sign up for to 

interact with us to ask specific questions that you might have and that will be helpful both for 

designers or solvers, as well as us because we'll get to hear what some of the questions you 

all have more directly and better understand what you might be encountering. We learned 

that booking links have been helpful in previous challenges and want to make that available 

for this challenge. So stay tuned and we'll be sending more information to registrants about 

that. We also are working on a process or an approach for the public to share social 

engagement programming and technology solutions that they are currently using and could be 

included in the clearing house. We don't have all the details worked out on that but we are in 

conversation around that and as soon as we have an approach we'll be sharing that with you. 

We expect that we'll host another webinar and we'll be announcing that soon so stay tuned for

that. Move on to the next slide.

So, the other thing that was posted on the MENTAL Health Challenge website, challenge.gov

and ACL website, is the Frequently Asked Questions document. And that was posted on July 

16th and can you access that document. We also are projecting to post an updated Frequently 

Asked Questions this August 4th, this coming Tuesday. I would like to start with a few 

questions that we had received and haven't answered yet. And I'll ask the question maybe and 

perhaps Kelly you could provide the answer. Our first question is, can you speak to postchallenge partnerships that will be available with a possibility that the ACL or other entities 

would contract and pay for an ongoing subscription to the winning platform?

Kelly Cronin: Great question. This is Kelly. So, beyond this $50,000 bonus prize, which 

we've already mentioned, any other federal funding or nonfederal financing of the platform 

overtime has not yet been determined. ACL is in the process of securing an implementation 

partner. As soon as the Phase two prize winners are announced at CES, they will be rapidly 

making sure that they can get to scale with a final solution. And they will also be planning 

and facilitating the formation of a multi stakeholder governance body. And so we're

anticipating that this multi-stakeholder governing body will be the one to really identify both

strategies to make the clearing house operational and fully scaled and also figure out the 

sustainability strategies, which will include the ongoing financing mechanisms. So there will 

be a lot of planning leading up to that that we'll be doing in partnership with the 

implementation partner. That work will be underway as teams are working on solutions 

during Phase one and Phase two.

Lori Gerhard: Well thank you, Kelly. Our next question is can you provide a sense of how 

refined or completed the prototype must be for Phase one.

Kelly Cronin: So an operational build of the user interface and clearing house with the 

ability to screen for social isolation, assess individual’s needs, and considering all that data 

from the process, match them to the appropriate social engagement program and technologies 

needs to be built in Phase one and demonstrated in a submission. A clearing house that is 

fully populated is not expected or realistic in Phase one, but a clearing house would need to 

be firmly built out to functionality and to effectively test a prototype during the pilot phase, 

with end users in Phase two. So we anticipate this is going to be evolving over the next five 

months. And as far as you can get as September 8th approaches, we would encourage you to 

try to make as much progress as possible. We don't expect to have a clearing house that 

would be fully operational. And as Lori mentioned, we're working on a process that would 
allow us to have transparency around the community level, for example, of social 

programming that is already in existence and evolving. In addition to this sort of technologies 

that could be part of the clearing house. So, we don't want people to feel pressured to have to 

do that on their own. We would like to make that available to all solvers. But again, it's a 

work in progress and we'll update you as soon as we can in that regard.

Lori Gerhard: Thank you, Kelly. Our next question is, what is the team expectation for an 

entity? Would a single entity generally be expected to partner with one or more other entities 

or is a team within a single entity acceptable, if it compromises the necessary expertise? Are 

we expected to partner with one or more other entities or a team within a single entity 

acceptable if it compromises the necessary expertise?

Kelly Cronin: So I think we don't want to be prescriptive here with what is exactly a team or 

what compromises a team. It is expected that a team would include a diverse set of 

experience and capabilities. So, user center design is important, having competency and

expertise in artificial intelligence and development of algorithms is important, database 

developments, knowledge of user needs, and expertise in social isolations, understanding and 

knowledge of community programs, expertise and accessibility requirements, understanding 

of what accessibility features are with technologies and user interfaces. All of this is -- it's a 

broad set of expertise. We also believe this is such an ambitious time frame that we are under, 

we want to be responsive during the pandemic and do as much as we can as a collective 

community to respond to the needs. We think that teams that can come together across 

organizations are likely going to be able to meet the ambitious time frame and leverage all of 

your strengths and capabilities through collaboration. So we would encourage to you think 

about coming together in teams, but we don't want to be prescriptive in how that happens.

Lori Gerhard: Thank you very much, Kelly. Another question is, for Phase two, does the 

solution need to be implemented?

Kelly Cronin: So a fully functional prototype needs to be operational and tested by end users 

according to what we've already written in the challenge. Participant teams will pilot the 

prototype and can meet in person to demonstrate the user experience and summarize results 

achieved during that pilot experience. Finalists will be asked to demonstrate their clearing 

house with the user interface and submit the results of their pilot by December 4th. So, that 

will include, and we can follow-up in writing with all this this because this is a lot of detail,

but this would include a written description of how the social engagement clearing house and 

user interface was modified to address the suggestions from the Phase one judges, a live 

demonstration of the clearing house, and the user interface prototype. Up to two Phase two 

awardees will be invited to demonstrate their award winning solution in a virtual user testing 

during the week of December 7th. And then the solvers will be selected to participate in 

Phase two. They must participate in the user testing in order to be evaluated.

Lori, do you want me to go through all of the parameters here that we have worked out or 

should we be providing this in writing as well?

Lori Gerhard: I think we can provide it in writing. It's really the details to the challenge 

which are already posted in the challenge and I think we can provide the details in writing. I 

think to summarize perhaps the answer that we were hearing about for Phase two and 

whether the solution need to be implemented, it sounds like it needs to be functioning and 

tested and there has to be evidence of the results of the testing, and that we would work with 

folks to scale that over the next six months after the winner was announced. So maybe we can 
move on to the next question. Can you speak to post-challenge partnerships that will be 

available with ACL? Is there a possibility that ACL or other entities would contract and pay 

for an ongoing subscription to the winning platform?

Kelly Cronin: So, we envision that the clearing house will be part of a national campaign to 

address social isolation, which we are working across many organizations to plan now. Phase 

one finalists are asked to submit a sustainability strategy with their Phase 2 submission. ACL 

and partners will work closely with the winner and finalists during the bonus phase to explore

sustainability strategies as well as the scalability strategy. And again that will be done as I 

mentioned earlier, in tandem with the implementation partner.

Lori Gerhard: Thank you, Kelly. In the chat we have a question – can we find out if there 

are teams in our state already working? So maybe I could respond to that one. When we have 

the platform up and running, if there are teams that are interested in collaborating, that will be 

visible to the teams that are accessing this SKLD platform. And so I'm not sure if the 

question is from a solver that is asking, but I'm hoping that might be answering the question. 

If not please rephrase the question. Then another question, is there potential for a challenge to 

be repeated outside of the COVID window. Kelly, did you want to take a stab at that one?

Kelly Cronin: Yeah, I mean I don't think we've thought about what the spectrum of 

opportunities might be outside of the COVID window. We want to do as much as we can in 

the next six months to get to a live operational tool that could be used broadly. If we feel like 

a challenge mechanism is the best way to evolve a broader portfolio of work, then we would 

be open to that. I think it's hard to predict what might be most appropriate thing in the next 18 

months or two years. This is clearly something we want to move on as quickly as possible 

now during the pandemic. But we intend to have a lasting effort for a long time, not just 

within ACL but supported as a much broader public/private effort. We know it will be a 

pervasive issue post COVID.

Lori Gerhard: Thank you. Who will be operating the clearing house and long term after it 

has been developed, and how will it be funded long term?

Kelly Cronin: We mentioned that we intend to be working with an implementation partner. 

Through the multi-stakeholder governing body and the implementation partner, we will be 

determining how best to both scale and sustain this. So we'll be looking at a variety of 

financing solutions and figuring out what is the best one or two or combinations to both scale 

and sustain it. So we don't have all the answers now. But there will be a lot of brain storming 

and planning over the next six to eight months.

Lori Gerhard: Thank you. This is a similar question. Is the winner or finalist expected to 

manage the long term sustainability updates in the clearing house or only propose a solution 

and after scale, development is managed by ACL partner agencies?

Kelly Cronin: I think it's certainly possible that the team that wins the final solution would 

be involved in the evolution of the clearing house and the interface. So I think we're open to 

what that looks like, along with consultation with implementation partner, to figure out what 

is the most practical and viable way to get to scale as rapidly as possible.

Lori Gerhard: Thank you. Our next question is, I presume that a comprehensive clearing 

house would include a variety of commercial resources with various price points, claims, et 
cetera, that may not be accessible to all and varying effects. Any guidance regarding this 

aspect of inclusivity?

Kelly Cronin: Great question, this is one we have been thinking about. We don't have all the 

answers yet. But it really depends on the financing that's available through various public and 

private sources that could potentially look at reduced costs or refurbished and donated 

products and figure out how some individuals that would be using clearing house could be 

eligible for them. We don't have all the answers down but we are exploring it.

Lori Gerhard: Thank you. I'm just looking here. Our next question is, just curious about the 

criteria we need to be putting in place for what resources are included in the clearing house. 

It’s somewhat similar to the last question.

Kelly Cronin: I'm sorry, could you repeat that?

Lori Gerhard: Actually this one is on the question sheet that we have.

Kelly Cronin: Okay, got it, okay.

Lori Gerhard: Just curious about the criteria number 34. Okay. So the question –

Kelly Cronin: The clearing house should include what are available in the proposed 

geographic testing area. In order to have a valid testing in Phase two, we want there to be 

validity in what is tested. That would be for older adults, people with disabilities, veterans 

and/or minority populations. Again, we'll be working with our contractor to make sure that 

we can provide a list of known social engagement programming and technology for solvers. 

So we are in the process of figuring out the most efficient way to do that that would be 

transparent to all the solvers.

Lori Gerhard: Thank you. We have a question in the chat. It's clear that staff at the VA can't 

be the lead of a team, but can they be a part of the team? I think in our posted challenge, staff 

that are working for the federal government should be consulting their ethics office to 

determine whether or not they can participate in the challenge. Kelly, is there anything more 

you would add to that answer?

Kelly Cronin: Yeah I think because the VA is such a large organization, I could see it would 

be plausible as a part of Phase two in the implementation there would be opportunities to 

involve them, whether it's Veteran Directed Care or other touch points of the VA. It might be 

logical to involve them. I think your answer is technically correct, they really have to figure 

out whether or not they can do it within the bounds of their organizations.

Lori Gerhard: Thank you. Just working through here. Someone had a question about what is 

an ADRC. And that is the Aging and Disability Resource Center and it's an organization 

within a state that helps people access long term services and supports. They oftentimes help 

people get connected to community-based services and actually activate those services as 

well as enroll in publicly funded programs that can support them in obtaining their long term 

service and support needs. We have Eldercare Locator question. I think Sherri might have 

left. Are you still on the call?

Sherri Clark: Yes, I am.

Lori Gerhard: Could the Meals on Wheels program be included in the elder care locator.
Sherri Clark: They are not listed, no.

Lori Gerhard: Okay.

Sherri Clark: At the present time, we don't list those at the present time.

Lori Gerhard: We have another question in the chat. How much does cost criteria factor into 

selecting a winner. For example, if one solution is less expensive to scale versus a more 

expensive one, will they be treated equally?

Kelly Cronin: Oh, I think we can say that at this point we have nothing in our judging 

criteria about the cost to scale. They are raising an interesting issue but it's not one that we 

have currently addressed in judging criteria.

Lori Gerhard: Okay. Thank you. I'm just looking to see if there are any other questions. 

There is a question, I'm not sure if we have the answer to this question but I will ask it so it is 

on the record. Who will own the solution at the end of the challenge?

Kelly Cronin: So we do have some intellectual property language within the challenge text 

that we would encourage to you read. But I think we can clarify and Lori, correct me if this is 

wrong, but any intellectual property that you bring into the challenge is a part of the team, 

you retain through the challenge. So, we would anticipate that any existing IP that's part of 

the solution is going to remain, -- all that would be under your ownership. I think part of the 

scalability and sustainability strategy is going to figure out how do we respect all that in

building a sustainable solution.

Lori Gerhard: Thank you, Kelly, that is what I understand to be the case also. We have 

another question. Should our assessment include demographic questions or shall we go 

straight to assessing social isolation in particular?

Kelly Cronin: Here we are. Well I think that's really up to the solver to determine as part of 

user center design -- what's most important to be able to match to an appropriate solution. So 

we really leave that up to you to decide what you think is most important to be able to match 

people to the solution that is best fit for them. I don't think we want to be prescriptive in how 

you do that or what exact questions or items should you include.

Lori Gerhard: Thank you, Kelly. And, we still have some time for more questions. I think 

we've answered all the questions in the chat.

Kristen Vangeloff: Hi, Lori, this is Kristen with the support team. We had some questions 

come in through the q and a feature as well. So if I could read those off or send them to you.

Lori Gerhard: Yes, if you want to go ahead and read them, that would be great.

Kristen Vangeloff: Sure. So, we had a couple question that I will combine into one. How 

can we get the PowerPoint presentation and the FAQ available?

Kelly Cronin: There is an FAQ posted at the challenge.gov MENTAL Health challenge 

page. And also on the acl.gov MENTAL Health challenge page. We will be posting an 

updated Frequently Asked Question document that will be on both of those locations, this 

Tuesday, August 4th, 2020. The PowerPoint for today's presentation along with the recording 

and the transcript will also be posted to those locations. However, it's possible they won't be 
posted by August 4th, but they will be posted as soon as we possibly can within the next 

week.

Kristen Vangeloff: We had another question. Where can we find data or a simple data set for 

the clearing house?

Kelly Cronin: I will just start by reinforcing that we are working on a way to gather, collect 

and represent, and share data that could be populated in the clearing house. We don't have a 

vicinity available right now. We have shared the Eldercare Locator which does have a lot of 

resources specific to the aging population, which could be a starting point. I would also 

remind you that, Lori reviewed the report that ADvancing States will be releasing on Friday 

and that will give an overview of the social isolation efforts and programs across states.

Lori Gerhard: And I would just add to what Kelly has shared that the June 26th and July 9th 

webinars that were done by national organizations that are working together to address social 

isolation also include some information about social engagement programming and 

technology solutions.

Kristen Vangeloff: We’ve had a couple questions come in asking for a little bit more 

information about ACL’s implementation partner. So one is who is ACL’s implementation 

partner, do you mean the winners or third parties? And asking if we could add some clarity 

about their role if a third party?

Kelly Cronin: Well, I will start. It is a third party and we are in the process of trying to

identify and finalize a partner. So we can't say anything definitive at this stage. I think their 

role, we have articulated just to reiterate, that they would be working with the prize winner to 

scale and sustain a final solution so that during the pandemic we have an operational clearing 

house and user interface that can be part of a broader public/private campaign. They will 

work closely with us in that process and also are going to be planning a multi stakeholder 

governance body to guide this effort. So, we can rely on that multi-stakeholder process and 

governance body to help plan the scalability and sustainability of the final solution.

Lori Gerhard: And Kristen I see that we're at 4:00 and we want to be respectful of 

everyone's time. We will take the questions that we've answered today along with those that 

perhaps we still have not answered and develop answers to those and then post a Frequently 

Asked Questions on the challenge.gov MENTAL Health Challenge website as well as the 

acl.gov/mentalhealthchallenge. We want to thank all of you for participating and the great 

questions that you are asking and your work in developing a solution to a very important 

challenge that we confront across our country and that is to help connect people that are 

socially isolated and get them engaged with friends and family and activities that are 

meaningful to them. And so we thank you again and this will conclude our webinar today. 

Watch for e-mails, if you registered for the challenge, about accessing the platform and we'll 

have more information out on the next webinar very soon. Thank you very much and have a 

wonderful day.