UCA has become the first college in Arkansas to place opioid overdose rescue boxes across its campus to empower faculty, staff and students to save lives.
These rescue kits are called Naloxboxes. They contain naloxone — also known as Narcan — gloves, a CPR mask and instructions on administering the reversal medication that helps induce breathing to victims experiencing an opioid overdose.
By implementing these boxes on campus, Stephanie Rose, the program director of UCA’s addiction studies program and assistant professor for the Department of Health Sciences, is hoping to give people a chance at life. Rose compared a Naloxbox to defibrillators.
“We are empowering students, faculty and staff to save lives by increasing knowledge and accessibility to naloxone,” Rose said. “Even if the person expected to be overdosing is not overdosing, there are no harmful side effects if they were to be treated with naloxone.”
Implementing these Naloxboxes is timely to America’s current opioid epidemic crisis.
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, “fentanyl is killing Americans at an unprecedented rate … already this year, numerous mass-overdose events have resulted in dozens of overdoses and deaths.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest estimates showed that more than 105,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2021.
The DEA says drug traffickers play a big part in driving addiction as they attempt to increase their profits by mixing fentanyl with other illicit drugs to sell to individuals unaware of the deadly substance they are purchasing.
Conway’s community has been affected by the misuse of drugs.
“UCAPD has administered naloxone once at a nearby convenience store, as they were the closest law enforcement agency at that moment, and they have administered it another time on the sidewalk near AETN,” said Fredricka Sharkey, UCA’s director of media relations.
Rose made it her mission to lower these numbers and bring Naloxboxes to campus. In 2017, Rose proposed the idea of the rescue kits, but the stigma surrounding drug addiction delayed progress.
“Some people think that having these boxes available will just encourage students to use more, to use it as a crutch,” Rose said. “But that is not how addiction works.”
With a supportive department on her side, Rose secured funding from the Division of Aging, Adult and Behavioral Health Services in partnership with MidSouth.
This funding ultimately resulted in UCA’s collaboration with the Arkansas Collegiate Network’s Collegiate Naloxbox Bystander Rescue Program.
“It was over the summer that I found out it [the program] was coming to campus,” Rose said. “The first box was installed in the Interprofessional Teaching Center.”
By the end of September 2022, there will be 26 Naloxboxes located around campus in areas with the most student traffic. Locations will include residence halls, on-campus housing and the Ronnie Williams student center. Resident coordinators and assistants will receive training on how to administer naloxone properly.
“The next step is to provide on-site training for all on how to utilize the kits and raise awareness against the stigma of addiction,” Rose said. “I also plan to apply for more funding to get as many individual Narcan kits in the hands of as many students as possible. You never know when it can be your turn to save a life.”