Adolescent-Led Opioid Education and Naloxone Distribution in a High School

Opioid overdose deaths are a leading cause of death for adolescents and young adults in the United States. Many young people, however, are not aware of basic harm reduction principles like overdose recognition, naloxone administration, and protections provided by Good Samaritan laws. This article describes advocacy efforts to create peer-to-peer opioid education and naloxone distribution (OEND) in a high school setting. Through the recruitment of multidisciplinary partners, the team created a novel student-led initiative in a high school setting to provide peer education. The high school students leveraged their existing relationships with teachers and peers to promote their classroom didactics, and they were able to provide overdose prevention education to 46 classes. In a focus group at the end of the school year, the peer educators stated that they were prepared to teach about overdose prevention, the student-led design was appreciated by their peers, and they planned to spread their model for OEND programming to local high schools. There was an increase in naloxone distribution following the student-led initiatives, with 94 kits distributed, a 247% increase from baseline distribution efforts at the beginning of the year. Ultimately, the high school health center was able to distribute 150 kits of free naloxone throughout the school year. This model serves as an example for using existing school resources, and particularly partnering with school-based health centers, to create a model for youth-led programs addressing overdose awareness in adolescents.