Thursday, February 20, 2025, 4:53PM |  20°
MENU
Advertisement
Interior of the Cathedral of Learning on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh.
1
MORE

Pitt's opioids task force releases recommendations

Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette

Pitt's opioids task force releases recommendations

A University of Pittsburgh opioid task force has recommended that the school mobilize its research and treatment resources to fight addiction through initiatives ranging from partnerships with local medical centers to an on-campus space devoted to student recovery.

The recommendations, released Wednesday, are the product of months of research and planning by the university’s 20-member Opioid Abuse Prevention and Recovery Task Force. The task force, convened by provost Patricia Beeson, includes officials in student affairs, health and public safety, as well as current students and a parent who lost her son to an overdose.

The committee’s recommendations center on three main categories: surveys and screening, prevention, treatment, recovery, campus policing, and monitoring and measuring. The report outlines several broad recommendations in each area, aimed to help university leaders make “contextually informed decisions” about the “effective implementation” of strategies to fight opioid addiction.

Advertisement

The committee’s recommendations include:

This Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017 photo shows an arrangement of pills of the opioid oxycodone-acetaminophen in New York.
Caroline S. Engelmayer
Pa. led country in unreported opioid deaths, study finds
  • Increased partnerships between Pitt’s Student Health Service, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and other treatment centers to conduct research the epidemic and develop treatment plans.
  • Establishing housing for students recovering from addiction. These could include a “sober living social/educational space and possibly housing,” per the report.
  • A school-wide survey to gather more data about opioid use and abuse rates, as well as a self-assessment tool that can help students determine whether they are at risk of an overdose.
  • Naloxone training for campus security guards and “employees with safety or security responsibilities” in dorms and parking garages. The report recommends that those employees should have naloxone “immediately available.”

Committee members wrote in the report that Pitt should make responding to the opioid crisis a priority even though “all currently available data” suggests the opioid epidemic does not affect the university as much as the general population.

“Even a low percentage of opioid use, when applied to a large student body, produces a troubling number of students who may be at risk of suffering what can be the life-ending or life-limiting consequences of severe opioid use disorder,” the report says.

Current data indicates that 1 percent of Pitt students -- approximately 350 students -- abuse opiods, although the report notes that the number is almost certainly an underestimate.

Advertisement

In an emailed statement, Pitt chancellor emeritus Mark Nordenberg, who chaired the task force, wrote that the group’s work will allow Pitt to fight the opioid epidemic more effectively.

“One student suffering from addiction is too many,” he wrote. “All of us were impressed with efforts already underway in student life, student health and public safety on all of our campuses. This task force has given us a framework to strengthen that foundation to make Pitt a clear best practices institution in this important area.”

Caroline S. Engelmayer: cengelmayer@post-gazette.com or on Twitter @cengelmayer13.

First Published: June 22, 2018, 11:57 p.m.

RELATED
SHOW COMMENTS (0)  
Join the Conversation
Commenting policy | How to Report Abuse
If you would like your comment to be considered for a published letter to the editor, please send it to letters@post-gazette.com. Letters must be under 250 words and may be edited for length and clarity.
Partners
Advertisement
Penguins hall of fame broadcaster Mike Lange works the play-by-play during the Alumni game at Heinz Field on Dec. 31, 2010.
1
sports
Mike Lange, longtime Penguins broadcaster, dies at 76
Mike Lange be­gan an­nounc­ing for the Penguns in 1974.
2
sports
How the hockey world is reacting to the death of Penguins broadcaster Mike Lange
Penguins broadcaster Mike Lange during a press conference at Consol Energy Center.
3
sports
Jason Mackey: What Mike Lange meant to me, and why we must carry on his incredible legacy
Dr. Sylvia Owusu-Ansah helped writers of "The Pitt" with her perspective working in emergency medicine.
4
a&e
'It's very real,' says the Pittsburgh ER doctor who consulted on 'The Pitt' TV show
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, GM Kevin Colbert and president Art Rooney II watch afternoon practice Friday, July 27, 2018, at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe.
5
sports
Brian Batko’s Steelers mailbag: Should there have been a better long-term plan at quarterback?
Interior of the Cathedral of Learning on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh.  (Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette)
Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette
Advertisement
LATEST news
Advertisement
TOP
Email a Story