Project Detour: Interrupting the Cycle of Addiction

ABOUT

Project Detour is a cross-sector collaboration that grew from the community’s commitment to interrupting patterns of addiction and incarceration in El Paso County, Colorado. The project is led by community partners united to disrupt and treat the cycle of addiction. Qualifying participants possess a combination of underlying addiction issues, homelessness, criminal justice system involvement, and a need for medical and social detox services. This effort positively impacts its participants and the community by reducing criminal justice system recidivism, opiate and narcotic dependence, negative interactions with the community at large, and repeated detox unit stays.

Targeted Impact

Project Detour is an opportunity to address drug and alcohol dependence where individuals have the opportunity for recovery instead of repeat patterns of violence, crime, and/or homelessness. Critical to this approach is a pharmaceutical intervention. Individuals are identified early and diverted into peer support, and care and prescription management.

BUILD PRINCIPLES

BUILD and its communities apply bold, upstream, integrated, local, and data-driven (BUILD) approaches to improve health in communities that are adversely affected by upstream factors.

Bold

Through an evidence-based combination of counseling, pharmaceutical treatment, and wraparound social and medical support, this innovative demonstration project positively impacts its clients and the community impacting criminal justice system recidivism, opiate and narcotic dependence, negative interactions with the community at large, and repeated detox unit stays.

Upstream

Project Detour steps in when the client is most vulnerable to offer solutions and prevent cyclical harm that goes beyond the individual and into the community. It starts by meeting the clients where they are to offer a safe place to recover from alcohol and opioid addiction. The program emphasizes accountability; care plans are focused on accountability to self, to family, to sobriety and ultimate recovery.

Integrated

Project Detour clients have medical, behavioral, and legal needs, which requires each factor to be a consideration when developing the program. Project Detour is a fully integrated solution that combines medical and behavioral care with housing and legal support, reaching across business sectors to create a blended solution.

Local

During planning, Project Detour used multiple methods including weekly meetings, process mapping, and community question and answer sessions to develop the program. The Q&A sessions were beneficial because they allowed members of the community to share their concerns while the program was being designed. This input from local leaders was critical to the program’s development and is crucial to the program’s continued success.

Data-Driven

All partners have entered into data sharing agreements. In addition, most, if not all, of the clients to be served through Project Detour are eligible for Medicaid and the team will monitor their medical claims as program data.