The Adopt a Health District (ADOPHD) Program provides students with internship experiences that directly support Connecticut communities fighting the opioid epidemic.

“It empowers the students to feel like they count, that they can make a difference in the world,” says Peaches Udoma, ADOPHD program coordinator and adjunct professor of pharmacy practice.

The program’s design began in 2021, when Nathaniel Rickles, project director and associate dean for admissions and student affairs in the School of Pharmacy, received a grant from the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS), funded through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

Since the first year, when the program included just two interns, it has grown substantially. During the 2024-25 academic year, 10 students participated. Next year, the program will expand to include the Stamford Health District, the Housatonic Valley Health District, and a total of 14 interns.

“The program is a great example of life-transformative education, as it bridges classroom learning with real-world application that can change the lives of those in our communities with the greatest needs for support and care,” says Rickles.

Students participate in a variety of activities related to the opioid crisis, including receiving and providing training to use Narcan, a medicine that can rapidly reverse an overdose, providing information about recognizing fake pills and general information about opioids, and assisting in the safe disposal of medication.

Two interns work in collaboration at each health district. Interns have worked in districts which include the towns of New London, Groton, East Hartford, West Hartford, Stratford, Bristol, Burlington, Cheshire, Prospect, and Wolcott.

“The health districts get new ideas from people who are reading the research, who are on the cutting edge, who are excited and idealistic about changing the world,” Udoma says. “The benefits of the relationship are endless, on both sides.”

While the program is administered through the School of Pharmacy, students have also come from the UConn MPH program, and more MPH students are applying this year. The majority of the interns, however, have come from the allied health sciences (AHS) program in the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources.

“Our students are really trying to get experience in different areas of healthcare and health promotion, so this is a perfect opportunity for them to get out into the community and put their knowledge to use,” says Jill Skowrenski, AHS administrative lead for student placement and engagement. “It’s so vital for the students to experiment in different paths in healthcare. It’s a great mix, this program led by the School of Pharmacy connecting with allied health students.”

Eva-LaRue Barber ‘25 (CAHNR) was one of the AHS students who participated in the program last year.

Barber works as an EMT and firefighter in New Haven, and already had experience administering Narcan.

“I was really curious about how larger prevention techniques could be employed by a community,” Barber says.

Barber interned in the Chesprocott Health District, which includes Cheshire, Prospect, and Wolcott.

There, she and the other intern assigned to the district analyzed data to identify what groups were experiencing overdoses and how that compared to the district’s demographics.

Because the population in the Chesprocott district is older, the interns went to senior centers and provided information about pill sorting and how to prevent accidental overdoses.

They also hosted Narcan trainings at a school and participated in Drug Takeback Day.

Barber made a video for the program’s YouTube channel, based on the in-person trainings.

“I thought that was a really accessible way for people who couldn’t make it in for the trainings, and also to share with their friends and families,” Barber says.

Barber will be working as a researcher at the Yale School of Medicine’s Department of Dermatology in the fall, before eventually attending medical school. She will continue to work with ADOPHD as a student coordinator.

“I’m really interested in communities and how you can educate communities, especially with targeted approaches for their specific challenges,” Barber says. “For me, that’s something that was really important – recognizing communities and creating things for them.”

Baber says she appreciates how she was able to tailor the experience to fit her interests.

“You can really customize it to fulfill your needs,” Barber says. “You get out of it what you put into it.”

Throughout the year-long program, students also collaborate on different teams to organize the program’s marketing, data, resources, and social events.

“It’s not just academics, it’s not just what you learn in the classroom that is crucial to your success out in the world, it’s also your ability to work with others effectively and consider other opinions,” Udoma says. “So that’s why we put so much focus on the team-based approach.”

Udoma says she and Rickles hope the program can become a national model.

“If we could get students as boots on the ground all over the country bringing their ideas, their passion, and their openness to learning, we could really make a difference in the opioid crisis,” Udoma says.

This work relates to CAHNR’s Strategic Vision area focused on Enhancing Health and Well-Being Locally, Nationally, and Globally.

Follow UConn CAHNR on social media