Alternative Peer Groups (APGs): An Innovative Solution to Address Gaps in the Care Continuum for Prevention and Recovery of Addiction

The Alternative Peer Group (APG) is a comprehensive adolescent recovery support model that integrates recovering peers and pro-social activities into evidence-based clinical practice.They are a critical piece of the care continuum that support adolescents outside of school. APGs promise to be an effective tool with which to turn the tide in the fight against the opioid epidemic.We will develop an Alternative Peer Group (APG) for Cape Cod to launch in early 2018 and develop and conduct research on outcomes and metrics to measure its success.We will create an APG Toolkit resource and online APG infrastructure to be housed on the NNLM website .Adolescents and their families will be able to access the latest educational content about addiction, recovery and APGs using the NNLM resources, such as MedLINEPlus and PUBMED. When young people come to the APG offices they can go to a 12-step meeting, work with a counselor and recovery coach, learn about what to do when they have cravings; also, just come to hang out, do homework and have fun. There are regularly scheduled sober activities such as movie nights, retreats, exercise classes, teaching young people that a sober lifestyle is not only possible, it's fun.