Dr. Harold Jonas, Ph.D., LMHC, and a psychotherapist who has been developing digital resources focused on drug addiction and recovery since 1999.
“We went live with Kurt’s project on January 15 for Android, and about a month later we went live on IOS,” Jonas said. “AngleStrong is a monitoring tool. When people don’t check in, it’s like an alarm system. It sends proactive messages to the caregivers, lifelines, and supports, saying that person is at risk, and they are able to take action and check in with that individual.”
The product of Jonas and Angle’s partnership currently costs $1 a day. Users are charged on a weekly basis, but the first seven days are always free. “We don’t have any ads on the app, and it is very personalized,” Jonas said. “Right now, we think that’s a pretty equitable number to ask of people. I think it is a 33 percent discount from a cup of coffee, and I find disheartening that some people don’t want to invest that much on themselves — but we understand, oftentimes, there’s a lot of damage people need to take care of after they stop using drugs.”
According to Jonas, a week ago (as of April 26), the app had been downloaded 1,500 times and was actively used by 600 to 800 people. In addition to allowing people to have a personalized kind of human connection with a support system that provides help whenever it is needed, AngleStrong includes daily check-in reminders, progress reports, and a ‘soberometer’ that shows simple graphs illustrating performance.
“This is an empowerment model,” Jonas said. “The responsibility for checking in is really on the people. They are responsible for their recovery, and we want them to take that responsibility seriously. But if they don’t, we will be right there via some kind of communication method to let them know we care about them. The app is designed to make people accountable and help people do the right thing.”
Communication methods used by the staff include phone calls, emails and/or texts. But monthly conference calls with Angle and messages of support from him are also featured in the app, which is what Jonas believes differentiates AngleStrong from other relapse prevention apps.
“I think when people experience the essence of what Kurt is and does, they get sincerity and honesty that basically bleeds through even on a screen,” he added. “He’s had terrible tragedy in his family from addiction, not only in his own life. He lost his sister to an overdose, his brother is incarcerated because of substance abuse, and his father died as a result of substance abuse. It infiltrated every area of his life. So now we’re just trying to make our contribution, and we only have to impact one life to make this all worthwhile.”
