OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ) – UW Oshkosh is the first university in the state to equip their residence halls with naloxone, a medication that helps reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.
Through a partnership with UW-Madison’s Wisconsin Voices for Recovery and the Winnebago County Health Department, the UW Oshkosh effort involves installing naloxone rescue boxes in the lobbies of all 10 residence halls on the Oshkosh campus.
“We’re hoping as we take the lead on this, other universities will follow…Our university community is right in the middle of the city of Oshkosh, and we are part of the community, and we were a reflection of the community. So we didn’t think that we would be immune to this issue,” said UW Oshkosh Police Chief Kurt Leibold. “It’s not like we’re having problems with overdoses here at the university. As a matter of fact, we’ve had one since I’ve been here over the past six years and it was an accidental overdose on medication.”
UWO police officers and student CSOs (community service officers) have been trained to administer naloxone. In the future, community advisers and residence hall leaders also may be trained.
“We want to make Narcan available to our community, especially in the residence halls where our students live,” Leibold told WTAQ News. “Drugs like fentanyl are being laced in drugs like marijuana now. So drugs that students may look upon as being harmless could be deadly, so we want to prepare for when those incidents might happen.”
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reports the state had 1,226 opioid overdose deaths in 2020, up about 34% from 2019. Winnebago County had 37 confirmed overdose deaths in 2020, an increase of 85% from 2019.
“Since the pandemic, we’re seeing a rise. Last year was the record for the most overdoses in [Winnebago] county, and we’re on pace to break that record again this year,” Leibold said. “It’s a crisis and I just want to make sure that our community here at UW Oshkosh has the tools to bring somebody out of an overdose if it happens.”
According to the Winnebago County Overdose Fatality Review team’s annual report, the county is experiencing an overdose epidemic in the midst of the pandemic with many people relapsing after years of sobriety.
The Nalox-ZONE boxes, which will include information about treatment resources, will be monitored wirelessly by sensors that detect when they have been opened.
“You can take Narcan. If you just want to have Narcan in your home, that’s what it’s for – to make Narcan available to the community,” Leibold said. “These boxes have sensors that will alert, and we will go check to make sure everything is okay. If it needs to be restocked, we’ll restock it at that time…Don’t think of this as some kind of a stigma. We have overdose issues happening. It’s just like learning CPR, just like having AED machines, it’s just another tool to be ready in case you have an emergency and need to save somebody’s life.”
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