Students now have access to free Narcan at the DeWeese Health Center in an effort to provide resources combating opioid use.
Undergraduate Student Government partnered with the Kent City Health Department and DeWeese Health Center to make DeWeese a distribution center.
Ivory Kendrick, senator for the College of Public Health and a junior public health major, created the initiative and wrote its legislation.
“We have this deal where we take Narcan from the Kent City Health Department, bring it on campus for DeWeese, and then we’re putting it in an accessible place for students,” said Kendrick, who is also an intern for the health department through AmeriCorps.
Kendrick said he wrote the resolution requesting that DeWeese become a naloxone distribution center in January but had been talking with the Kent City Health Department beforehand.
Kendrick approached Joan Seidel, health commissioner for the Kent City Health Department, to propose the initiative.
“We’re an official Narcan distribution point here at the health department,” Seidel said. “We go through a program called Project DAWN, so we get Narcan and fentanyl test strips free of charge. I worked very closely with the DeWeese center on campus during [COVID-19] and built some relationships up, so I knew there would be an avenue there to approach the university about having a distribution center.”
The health department currently provides DeWeese with about 100 boxes of Narcan each month. Kendrick said the number could change depending on its popularity.
“I knew that eventually [fentanyl] would come over to Kent,” he said. “It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. I knew for a fact it would be better to start this precautionary initiative because if anything were to happen, that could mean saving the life of someone.”
An Instagram post announcing DeWeese as a distribution center also said USG would work closely with the center to create informative resources for students on opioid abuse. Kendrick expressed how important it is to him that students have access to the information.
There are also plans to make more distribution locations and increase substance abuse awareness, Kendrick said.
“I am trying to expand on where it’s provided,” Kendrick said. “I’d love to especially see it at Eastway or the Student Center, and there’s talks of getting it in the residence halls for next year. The talks are happening, it’s just a matter of the logistics of getting it into the dorms and where it will be.”
Kendrick and Seidel both said the initiative will stay indefinitely.
“I want to help out students, and I want to help people who need some assistance,” Kendrick said. “It’s not only college students, it’s also the families that they see while they go home over break, and I think we need to deal with that too.”
Seidel said she believes students who feel they don’t need access to Narcan will be the best individuals to learn about how to use it.
“You would never use Narcan on yourself,” Seidel said. “So being drug-free or being sober, those are great individuals to learn about Narcan, because they may be the one that ends up saving someone else’s life.”
Aryn Kauble is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].
