Study Examines First Year Of Gloucester Opioid Program

GLOUCESTER, MA – A study in the New England Journal of Medicine examined the first year of the ANGEL initiative, and found that it was more successful than hospital programs in placing patients in treatment programs.

Gloucester's ANGEL initiative allows opioid addicts to come into the Gloucester Police station and get treatment without getting arrested. Police help get the patient into a treatment center, and provide transportation to the center. If immediate placement isn't available, volunteer Samaritans are assigned to the patient for emotional support.

The authors of the study found that the majority of the 376 individuals who asked for help at the Gloucester Police Department between June 2015 and May 2016 were offered placement into a detox or treatment program. Four percent of participants changed their minds and didn't go into the treatment they were placed in. Ten percent of the participants returned to the Gloucester Police Department to ask for additional help.

"The astounding fact is that people came to the police station for help, and they got it," said David Rosenbloom, professor at Boston University School of Public Health and co-author of the study. "In our follow-up calls, participants told us that the police station was the first place they had ever sought help without being judged and stigmatized."

The study identified different factors that help successfully connect addicts to treatment, including motivation to get into treatment (patients actively go to the police department seeking help), volunteer support, 24-hour access, a relationship with a local treatment center, providing transportation, and state-mandated insurance in Massachusetts (which covers drug detoxes).

"Gloucester developed a model to meet people where they are and to provide treatment on demand, 24 hours a day, when individuals present motivated to seek care," said co-author of the study Dr. Davida Schiff, MD, of Boston Medical Center. "Gloucester created a successful entry point to help access to our complicated, hard-to-navigate treatment system. Our hospital systems can and must do more to provide non-stigmatizing screening and referral services for individuals with opioid use disorder."

The model for the ANGEL Initiative is used by nearly 160 police departments in 28 states, including the Ipswich Police Department. P.A.A.R.I. (Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative) was created to support the ANGEL Initiative and its expansion nationwide. More than 200 treatment centers have joined P.A.A.R.I. to offer assistance to participants.

"There's only one New England Journal of Medicine. This is the most prestigious validation of our innovative police-based initiatives that we could ever hope for," said John Rosenthal, Chairman of the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative (P.A.A.R.I.). "Now it's time for the healthcare system to step up and provide long-term treatment for opioid addiction, like it does for every other chronic disease."

Mari-Lynn Drainoni, associate professor of health law, policy and management at Boston University was the third author of the study.

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