Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Harrod, Steven B.
• Harrison, Sayward E.
• McQuillin, Samuel D.
• Weist, Mark D.

Titel

United States Schools and the Opioid Crisis: Charting New Directions

Ist Teil von

• American journal of health education, 2024-05, Vol.55 (3), p.156-168

Ort / Verlag

Reston: Routledge

Erscheinungsjahr

2024

Quelle

Taylor & Francis

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The US opioid epidemic has caused broad devastation in homes, schools, and communities across the country. Increases in mental health disorders and isolation associated with the COVID-19 pandemic have only worsened the epidemic. School health and mental health providers, along with educators and school administrators, can play a critical role in delivering prevention messages, providing screening and linkage to evidence-based services, and offering psychosocial support for children and families impacted by opioid misuse and opioid use disorder (OUD). Decreasing the stigma surrounding the opioid epidemic is also critical, and school professionals/educators are well-positioned to play a key role in stigma reduction efforts in schools and communities. There is a critical absence of health education programs in the US focusing on this topic, underscoring the need for the development and expansion of such programs. A AJHE Self-Study quiz is online for this article via the SHAPE America Online Institute (SAOI) http://portal.shapeamerica.org/trn-Webinars The opioid epidemic has created unprecedented challenges in the United States (US), including hundreds of thousands of lives lost to overdose in the past five years. Expansion of prevention and treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) is urgently needed, as evidence-based strategies exist but many remain unable to access life-saving services. To inform school health and mental health providers, educators and school administrators about the causes and consequences of the US opioid epidemic and to provide practical solutions for engineering multi-tiered systems of support for children and families affected by the epidemic, including through opioid misuse, OUD, and opioid overdose. We review the literature on the history of and current challenges associated with the opioid epidemic in the US. The collateral damage of OUD is pervasive, impacting children and families across the US. We found no health education programs focusing on this topic in US schools, underscoring a critical need and cogent practice/policy avenue. Schools are uniquely positioned to respond to the opioid epidemic, but school health and mental health providers, educators, and other professionals who work in schools must have accurate knowledge of the opioid epidemic, understand the challenges it is causing for children and families, and be familiar with best practices in prevention and treatment. This review provides a succinct overview of the history of the opioid epidemic, examines its impacts on children and families, and provides a call to action for schools to partner in our national response.