Voluntary Self-ReferralGloucester Angel Initiative

Allie Hunter McDadeExecutive DirectorPolice Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative (PAARI)

Opioid Epidemic

• Most urgent public health and

public safety issue we currently

face as law enforcement and as

a county

• Leading cause of accidental

death

• 174 Americans fatally overdose

per day

Barriers to Treatment

• Only 11% of people who need

treatment receive it

• Significant obstacles even when

someone wants treatment

• Lack of a simple entry point

• Lack of immediate access 24/7

(treatment on demand)

• Lack of insurance coverage or

ability to pay

• Lack of transportation

• Shame and stigma when seeking

help

Gloucester Angel

Program

• Series of overdose deaths in early

2015

• Established GPD as a safe station –

Anyone can self-refer to ask for

help and will receive a direct

referral to treatment

• Goals to prevent overdose deaths

and remove barriers to treatment

and recovery

• Create simple 24/7 pathway to

treatment on demand

• Reduce stigma associated with

seeking help

• Reframe addiction as a disease

not a crime that needs treatment

not jail

Self-Referral Pathway

• Program designed to help people

with substance use disorders who

self identify as ready for treatment

and voluntarily reach out to law

enforcement for help

• Especially for people who aren’t

sure where to turn and have

faced barriers in the past

• Reaches people outside of the

criminal justice system (i.e. before

law violation or arrest)

• Law enforcement officers are in a

unique position to remove barriers

help people take their first steps to

recovery

Program Components

• Anyone who presents at the station

is offered a direct referral

• Intake process to determine

treatment needs and desires

• Address and remove barriers

• Care coordination, service linkages,

and advocacy

• Re-entry and ongoing support from

Recovery Coaches, social workers,

clinicians, trained volunteers, or

officers

• Collaboration and linkages

between police, treatment,

community, and government

• Programs evolve and add

components over time

Program Outcomes

• Save lives

• Increase access to treatment and

recovery

• Reduce crime, especially property

crime

• Build community trust in police

• Improve police culture and job

satisfaction

• Reduce health care and criminal

justice costs

• Change national conversation from

addiction as a crime to addiction as

a chronic disease, i.e. “we cannot

arrest our way out of this”

The New England Journal of

Medicine

• NEJM piece about the GPD

Angel Program

• Participants found the model a

feasible way to engage in

treatment and that police were

effective at securing direct

placements

• 94.5% direct referral rate,

compared to 56% direct

referral rate by Project

ASSERT at Boston Medical

Center Emergency Department

• Shows that police can provide

effective self-referral entry

points to treatment

National Movement

• GPD Angel Program caught national

attention and sparked community

policing movement – added a new

tool to officers’ toolkit to save lives

• PAARI nonprofit founded in 2015

with a mission to help law

enforcement agencies establish pre-

arrest programs

• Provide technical assistance and

resources to partners

• Free to join and open to any

agency that is creating pre-arrest

pathways to treatment and

recovery – Most programs utilize

multiple pathways

Replication

• PAARI currently has 382 law

enforcement and public safety

partners in 32 states

• Variations of the self-referral model

are currently operating in more than

250 departments

• Safe Stations

• Safe Passages

• Hope Not Handcuffs

• Operation Hope

• Hope Initiative

• A Way Out

• Angel Initiative

• SAFE

• LEAAP

• CARE

Nationwide Network of PAARI

Law Enforcement Partners

Questions?Allie Hunter McDadeallie@paariusa.org508-212-9831www.paariusa.org