Director of Health Promotions Char Kopchick drew laughs from the Student Senate as she introduced Ohio University's new Medical Emergency Assistance pilot program in an unusual fashion.
Dressed as a cell phone labeled Call 4 MEA
Kopchick, with Associate Director Terry Koons, presented plans for OU's medical amnesty program. The program allows students to seek help for an alcohol or drug overdose without guaranteed disciplinary action from OU, but does not extend to behavioral misconduct or legal action taken by the city of Athens.
My hope is that this will impact people who would never call before Koons said. We're only one day away from somebody dying and luckily we haven't had an overdose to alcohol recently.
Research based on six months of focus groups and surveys revealed 92 percent of students would not call 911 if a fellow student passed out, according to Health Promotions.
One of the problems is many times students didn't feel like it was their problem
Koons said. (MEA) is going to allow students to step in where they need to G?
The director of Judiciaries will decide after the incident whether or not to grant students amnesty. The amnesty will be granted if the student received emergency medical treatment, assisted a fellow student in need of medical attention or has never used the program before.
At first
I had some hesitation about (the one-time amnesty)
but I think if you give too many freebies it's going to be an abused power
Residence Life Commissioner Emily Shuki said.
The university will require students granted amnesty to complete an alcohol or drug intervention program ' a cost of $100 ' and to comply with recommendations for educational intervention.
I don't think anyone would want that on their shoulders ' I didn't call for help
and now
I don't have a friend
Kopchick said.
Health Promotions will advertise the program through commercials, magnets, poster and volunteers dressed in cell phone costumes. They will conduct surveys through the coming year to evaluate the program's effectiveness.
I really think that once it kind of catches on
students will really react positively to it and I think it is going to have a great impact on our campus
