CASAT’s Nevada Opioid Center of Excellence at the School of Public Health leads local efforts of a national initiative
“We hope this is information that you’ll never need to use, but now you have it if you ever do.” This is the closing message of a very informative training video now available to all students, faculty and staff at the University of Nevada, Reno through WebCampus.
The School Public Health faculty, University students, and CASAT have been working to make naloxone more available, according to Dean Muge Akpinar-Elci. The training, created by the Center for the Application of Substance Abuse Technologies (CASAT) in association with the Nevada Opioid Center of Excellence at the School of Public Health, is the first step designed to provide opioid overdose education and make naloxone (often best known under the brand name Narcan) and other harm reduction tools available on the Nevada campus.
Individuals can complete the online training, take a quiz to confirm they understand the content and receive a certificate of completion via email. With that certificate, they can visit one of three locations around campus and anonymously pick up a harm reduction kit. While the certificate must be shown, no record is kept of who picked up the kit, ensuring anonymity and removing barriers to accessing these life-saving medications and tools in the community.
The kit contains a number of items to help with opioid overdose and harm reduction including two doses of naloxone, test strips to detect certain substances including fentanyl and xylazine, a CPR mask and gloves, as well as information about community resources.
The overdose education and harm reduction program on campus launched in August 2024. Students from the Associated Students of the University of Nevada (ASUN) put together a resolution about one and a half years ago requesting more availability of Narcan on campus. The program is funded by a federal grant managed by the state, with CASAT serving as the distributor of opioid overdose information—a role it has fulfilled in Nevada since 2018.
“This is really a grassroots movement initiated by the student body,” Michelle Berry, the associate director of CASAT said. “We aren’t doing this because we think there is a high use of opioids on campus. We want to make sure it’s available where there may be any instances of use. If people come across a situation, we want them to feel prepared.”
