Mount Holyoke’s “Be Well” initiative hosted a fo- cus group on opioids on Feb. 8. AmeriCorps Volunteer in Service to America (VISTA) Lucy Bolognese ’18 and Hampshire alum Charlie Hailey, a VISTA Community Opioid Epidemic Specialist, led the group. The pair cited their mission as an assessment of what college students already know about opioids and how they can more effectively disseminate information on the dangerous painkillers.
Nation fights back against intensifying opioid fatalities
BY VIVIAN LIVESAY ’21
According to the Ohio Department of Health, Montgomery County, Ohio, had the highest rate of accidental opioid overdoses in the state, with 521 fatalities per 10,000 people in 2017. Within the Montgomery County, the city of Dayton was hit particularly hard by the opioid epidemic. However, according to an article published last week in the New York Times, despite the overall increase in drug-related deaths, the county has managed to cut down its overdose rate by more than half in the past year, hopefully setting an example for the rest of the country to follow.
