Students across multiple areas of study once again have the opportunity to attend a series of free workshops that will help them recognize and respond to opioid and substance use disorder.
The first two workshops of the 2020/2021 Addictions Crisis Certificate program, offered through IU's Responding to the Addictions Crisis Grand Challenge, will occur starting Sept. 23.
Developed as a partnership between the IU Interprofessional Practice and Education Center and the associate director of professional community programs at the IU Bloomington School of Education, these sessions are free to students. All students looking to learn more about opioid and substance use, including those studying education, administration, social work, nursing and other healthcare fields, are encouraged to attend.
"The series serves as great professional development for students, preparing them for the workforce and a familiarity with future community outreach," said Dan Melnick, associate director of professional community programs at the IU Bloomington School of Education. "It also creates awareness of this serious issue, provides training to help our students better face these challenges and offers resources and support for additional knowledge and aid."
This year’s sessions are:
- The Monroe County Department of Health's online Naloxone training will take place from 7 to 8 p.m., Sept. 23 via Zoom. Those who attend the training will have their naloxone kits mailed to them or can pick them up at a designated location.
- The "Children Living with Parents who Have Substance Use Disorder" workshop will occur from 7 to 8:30 p.m., Oct. 7 via Zoom. The session will be led by Emily Da Costa and Paige Young, clinical supervisors for the Indianapolis Public School’s school-based services at the Sandra Eskenazi Mental Health Center.
More information and registration for the workshops is available online.
Last year, more than 100 students attended the series' workshops that included topics around naloxone training, the stigma of addiction, referral to treatment, and children living with parents who have a substance use disorder.
Organizers hope to continue the series throughout the spring semester. Dr. Laura Romito, a professor at the IU School of Dentistry and project Principal Investigator through the IU Interprofessional Practice and Education Center, said the series is another example of how she and other researchers at IU are helping to prepare future frontline workers to battle opioid and substance use disorders.
"As the face of addiction and substance use disorder changes, so does our understanding of who can have a positive impact on the situation," Romito said. "The opportunity to make the greatest impact on the lives of people with substance abuse issues, their families, and ultimately, communities, requires effective collaboration among individuals from within and across many professions and sectors. This series highlights how an interprofessional collaborative approach can be achieved, and why it’s so important in tackling a complex, multi-faceted problem such as the addictions epidemic."
Responding to the Addictions Crisis
The Responding to the Addictions Crisis Grand Challenge initiative engages a broad array of IU's world-class faculty, as well as IU's business, nonprofit and government partners. Working together, the groups are contributing to an initiative to implement a comprehensive plan to reduce deaths from addiction, ease the burden of drug addiction on Hoosier communities and improve health and economic outcomes. This initiative is one of the nation's largest and most comprehensive state-based responses to the opioid addiction crisis -- and the largest led by a university.