PPB + Peers Outreach Pilot

About the project: Portland-area Measure 110 addiction recovery providers and law enforcement are partnering to save lives and help people living outside with addiction and unmet behavioral health needs. The project is part of a broader effort to curb public drug use without criminalizing addiction, giving police a new tool to connect people with lifesaving interventions like detox, basic needs referrals, addiction treatment, mental health and medical care, and other supports. Providers staff each pilot with culturally and linguistically-specific outreach teams and secured emergency shelter, detox, and treatment beds for those who need help. 

How it works: When law enforcement encounters someone using drugs in public, they offer them the opportunity to meet with a trained outreach worker. If the person agrees, an outreach team is deployed to their location within 10 minutes or less. If that person wants services, the outreach worker attempts to get them same-day access to care. If same-day care is not available, outreach workers maintain contact to support the person with their services plan, while also working to navigate wait lists and other barriers to get them access to care as quickly as possible.

Public health data shows that most individuals utilizing Measure 110 services go directly to providers. Similar programs that exist elsewhere demonstrate that when police are facing public drug use, having an immediate way to connect people with services is demonstrably more effective than issuing a citation alone.

For more information about the pilot project and to learn how you can support it please contact: 

Tera Hurst, Health Justice Recovery Alliance – tera@healthjusticerecovery.org

Dave Baer, Portland Police Bureau, Central Bike Squad –David.baer@police.portlandoregon.gov

Janie Gullickson, MHAAO – jgullickson@mhaoforegon.or