A recent study by Christina Friebott, a PhD candidate in Boston University highlights the growing concern of opioid overdoses across campuses nationwide. In her recent OP-ED for the Boston Herald, Friebott reveals that despite growing awareness of opioid reversals, fewer than 15% know how to use it.
Friebott mentioned the details of her research and what that means in terms of policy for college administrators.
“Yeah, so I was very interested in [bystander response], in one of my recent studies where I added questions to [the study], not only did I add questions on do you know what an opioid overdose looks like [and] would you be willing to call emergency services in case a friend was experiencing an overdose and more than 3 people said yes,” Friebott said,”less than fifteen percent knew how to use naloxone [so] it points towards more educational interventions on college campuses.”
SVSU and Delta College in the mid-Michigan region have taken steps to address the opioid crisis. Collaborating with Face Addiction Now (FAN), the colleges have installed Narcan distribution boxes on campus, providing easy access to the lifesaving medication.
Friebott talked about the financial constraints and fear of low enrollment for colleges when displaying Naloxone sprays.
“One of the easiest thing that colleges can do is have naloxone available, it the becomes a little more expensive if you want to invest in training and having communication campaigns and signs”, Friebott said, “what I’ve heard is that they want to be a little more lowkey, they don’t wanna make it seem like it’s a huge problem to have signs everywhere [it will] make it seem there’s lots of overdoses happening on-campus.”
Friebott emphasized the role state policies play into how higher educational institutions implement their naloxone distribution strategy,
“There are policies in eight states now that require colleges and universities to have Naloxone on-campus but the way those policies [work] in those states are very different,” Friebott said, “there aren’t these additional requirements for training or awareness campaigns and people will just walk past [Naloxone boxes] and not really understand what it’s for.”
University leaders have different priorities and sometimes lack thereof for addressing opioid use on-campus. Friebott expanded on that.
“I interviewed higher education leaders on-campus [and] the common theme was that there’s not a lot of buy-in from higher administration because opioid overdose was not seen as an issue either among college students broadly or within their specific community.”
Friebott commented on how opioid overdose can happen in a variety of different ways and the user can be unaware of what they are taking.
“It’s not just prescription opioids, it’s fentanyl present in any drug form, it could be in fake Adderall,” Friebott said,”those type of study aids are the types of things that students are using more frequently.”
Friebott talked about peer pressure which is one of the main factors driving opioid addiction.
“Generally, college students are students that are [18 and] a lot of times it’s the first time being away from home [and] exploring your adult identities so there’s a lot of risk taking that can happen,” Friebott said,”if you feel pressured to do something in order to become someone’s friend, they’re probably not the best group of friends for you.”
Friebott also mentioned the growing demand from students to put opioid prevention strategies in place.
“In many of the places that I talked to, students were advocating for access to resources, they wanted to know and be trained so that they could help others,” Friebott said, “so I think that’s one of the many reasons why so many of these programs have launched and been successful.”
