New Resource! Fact Sheet for Schools and IHEs on Addressing Opioid Emergencies

Opioid overdose deaths among children and teenagers have tripled since 1999, according to a recent U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention research article, indicating that opioid abuse and misuse continue to be a problem for schools and institutions of higher education (IHEs). To help the educational community address such an emergency, the REMS TA Center has released a fact sheet on Preparing for Opioid-Related Emergencies for K-12 Schools and Institutions of Higher Education.

The fact sheet:

• Describes briefly how prescription opioids can be misused or abused and how K-12 schools and IHEs can be affected.
• Details how to plan for opioid-related emergencies via the recommended six-step planning process described in the Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations Plans and Guide for Developing High-Quality Emergency Operations Plans for Institutions of Higher Education; included are considerations such as who can provide input into the planning process.
• Shares activities to help prevent, protect from, mitigate the effects of, respond to, and recover from opioid emergencies.
• Lists additional resources, including the report Federal Resources for Rural Communities to Help Address Substance Use Disorder and Opioid Misuse, which was recently released by the Rural Opioid Federal Interagency Working Group.

For additional strategies to support students, see the National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments Webinar on The Opioid Crisis and K-12 Schools: Supporting Students at School. More information on addressing substance abuse is available on the REMS TA Center’s topic-specific Web page for Supporting Efforts to Create a Public Health, Medical, and Mental Health Annex as a Part of Your Emergency Operations Plan.