Full course description
Course Introduction
Drug overdose is now the leading cause of accidental death in the United States and the opioid epidemic has been called, “the worst drug crisis in American history,” by the Drug Enforcement Agency. What can educators do to help combat the spread of opioid misuse and addiction? In this course, you will learn about the contributing factors of the epidemic, the science of addiction, and local and national data. You will also discover how to approach the topic with students, administrators, and other staff, recognize signs of misuse, learn effective practices in drug misuse education, and gain additional resources for use in your school and in spreading awareness.
Course Creators
This course was created through a partnership between the College of Education and Human Ecology and the College of Pharmacy.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Articulate the role of the teacher in fighting this epidemic, specifically to:
- Recognize the signs of drug use
- Gain awareness of effective drug education programs
- Identify strategies for intervention with students and colleagues
- Describe the scope of the opioid epidemic and its serious physical and mental health consequences
- Recognize the source of opioid drugs
- Understand the nature of drug addiction and withdrawal
- Understand how the U.S. drug-taking culture and self-prescribing practices have contributed to the epidemic
- Describe various effective treatment programs that are available.
- Recognize the signs of overdose and describe appropriate actions to take in case of overdose
- Report an incident when someone uses a drug and make a referral to health professionals when someone is seeking help
Technical Assistance:
The recommended browser for taking this course is Google Chrome or Firefox
If you have registration questions or experience issues with this course, please submit a request for support through our EHE Scarlet Support Request Form. Make sure to include the full name of the course and the email address you used to register your account in Scarlet.