Elevating the Essential Role of Higher Education in Treating Substance Use Disorders
“I’ve always felt that I stumbled into this passion that I didn’t know existed,” says Allison Smith, Ph.D., Senior Program Administrator for the Louisiana Center Addressing Substance Use in Collegiate Communities (LaCASU) at the Louisiana Board of Regents (BOR) in Baton Rouge, LA and facilitator of the Louisiana Higher Education Coalition (LaHEC).
Early on, Dr. Smith knew two important things about her future career: she liked helping people and she was good with paperwork. In 2010, she found her way into the work of addressing substance use and overdose prevention through an internship at the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in Washington D.C.
During Dr. Smith’s time with CSAP, she gained valuable experience and says she, “fell in love with being able to help bring additional voices to those communities.” Her passion for this work developed when she realized that she liked the organizational side of public health most. Dr. Smith explains, “when I got the internship [with CSAP] it was definitely a way for me to be able to help move organizations, campuses, and departments forward.” She added, “What I really enjoy is that I get to provide support for the staff that do the heavy lift of seeing and treating our students.”
The LaCASU was formed in 1998 following the tragic drinking death of a Louisiana State University (LSU) student. As a result, LSU was selected to take part in an eight-year research study with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s “A Matter of Degree” program, to address binge drinking on college campuses across the country. The LaCASU established and manages the LaHEC to serve as a statewide coalition of institutions of higher education to implement prevention strategies. Eventually, the LaCASU offices moved to the Louisiana State Board of Regents, where it is currently funded by the Louisiana Department of Health, Office of Behavioral Health.
“Looking at those environmental strategies, what kind of policies can we put in place and understanding that our numbers, particularly even for college students, are not as high for students than the community but we are in a really good space where we can do prevention on the front end, so they never get to where other numbers are. We still have work to do on stimulants and alcohol and even cannabis use but we can’t afford to let another substance keep climbing.”
Today, LaHEC is the “nexus” of the relationship between the Louisiana Department of Health and the Board of Regents because none of these institutions traditionally worked together before on substance use or overdose prevention in higher education.
Dr. Smith joined the LaCASU office in 2010 as a Graduate Assistant, where she went on to complete a Master of Public Administration (2011) and attain her Doctorate in Educational Leadership, Research & Counseling with a Specialization in Higher Education Administration from Louisiana State University (2016). In her current role as Sr. Program Administrator, she is the only constant staffer of the LaCASU office and has built invaluable institutional knowledge and trust within her community. Dr. Smith plays a key role in providing technical assistance and support to build overdose prevention efforts on more than 35 campuses across Louisiana. A cornerstone of her work is administering the Core Alcohol and Drug Survey Project of Louisiana, offered free of charge to all Louisiana institutions of higher education. Survey results assist higher education staff in strategic planning to reduce problems associated with substance use on their respective campuses. In addition, results prompted the state’s leadership to right a glaring hole within existing policies – the BOR did not have a policy that focused on substance use prevention on campuses.
This led to the adoption of the Board of Regents (BOR) Opioid Education, Training, and Reporting Policy, a game changer in substance use and overdose prevention for the state of Louisiana. The core components are educational awareness, naloxone administration reporting, and required training for all athletic staff, counselors, the health and wellness center, Resident Advisors, and all students that live in residential housing, including every Greek life organization within the BOR jurisdiction. Through the partnership with the Louisiana Department of Health, LaHEC is able to provide naloxone to all campuses free of charge.
Dr. Smith explains that it required multiple conversations between the state, coalitions, BOR, and staff about how to place naloxone on campus and make it accessible to faculty, staff, and students. Further, LaHEC and BOR had to combat the prevailing school of thought that easy access to naloxone would encourage or even increase substance use on campus, versus the benefits of being able to easily access naloxone to save lives.
While the number of campus students reported to be living with a substance use disorder (SUD) or opioid use disorder (OUD) in Louisiana is lower than in surrounding communities across the state, the LaHEC and BOR see this as an opportunity to establish good prevention practices now. They hope that these efforts will also lessen other issues like sexual assault, hazing, and binge drinking.
Dr. Smith says, “the [BOR] policy is the highlight of [my work]. We never passed policy before. We only did programming with our campuses.” She explains that moving their coalition to the Board of Regents has put higher education in a unique position to, “step-back and take a broader look and see how we can help shape behavior” of college students on campuses across Louisiana. In order to keep students safe, Dr. Smith states that, “looking at those environmental strategies, what kind of policies can we put in place and understanding that our numbers, particularly even for college students, are not as high for students than the community but we are in a really good space where we can do prevention on the front end, so they never get to where other numbers are. We still have work to do on stimulants and alcohol and even cannabis use but we can’t afford to let another substance keep climbing.”