Starting in the fall of 2023, the Schacht Center began a program aimed at providing harm reduction resources to Smith students, including Narcan trainings, NaloxBoxes and personalized Harm Reduction bags.
The Schacht Center website defines harm reduction as “policies, programs and practices that decrease risk of overdose for people who use drugs,” while adding that harm reduction “can also extend to interventions that decrease risk in other potentially harmful situations.”
The Schacht Center will host various Narcan Training sessions throughout the academic year, advertised on their Instagram @wellnessatsmith. The first training session took place on Oct. 8 from 4:30 to 4:45 p.m. in room 102 of Neilson Library.
At this session, student Community Health Organizers (CHOs) Maya Jacobs ’26 and Naima Masiki ’26 gave a short presentation on the history and aims of the harm reduction movement, the impact and prevalence of overdoses in the larger Northampton community and instructions about how to administer Narcan, also known by its generic name naloxone.
The presenters provided free Narcan boxes after the session, each containing two doses and an informational packet written in both English and Spanish. At the free sessions, students can ask CHOs specific questions about the nuances of naloxone administration that are harder to communicate through an informational video.
Free Narcan is also available in the six NaloxBoxes around campus and the Opiate Harm Reduction bags at Schacht. Each NaloxBox contains a mask for administering rescue breaths, nasal naloxone spray and nasal naloxone administration instructions. The NaloxBoxes, announced on Instagram on Feb. 24, 2024, are placed within the Campus Center, the Alumnae Gymnasium, Tyler Dining Hall, Cutter/Ziskind Dining Hall, King/Scales Dining Hall and outside the Friedman Apartments.
The Schacht Center’s professional staff oversee the Harm Reduction bags program, which is implemented by student CHOs. Students can fill out an anonymous google form to request a bag labeled with their name or with a recognizable anonymous symbol that will be available within a week and can be picked up in the Schacht Center lobby during all open hours. There is no limit to the amount of bags a student can request.
As a movement, harm reduction focuses on preventing opiate overdose deaths, but is also concerned with other situations where harm can be mitigated. Harm reduction provides helpful tools for a wide variety of potentially risky behaviors, like condoms for safe and protected sex and sharps containers to promote sanitary needle use and disposal.
Schacht’s current offerings include a Self-Harm Reduction bag (fidget toys, sour candy, rubber bands, red dot stickers, temporary tattoos, a calm strip and a mindful encouragement card), a Nicotine Cessation bag (fidget toys, a starter pack of nicotine gum and quit smoking resource sheets), an Opiate Harm Reduction bag (fentanyl testing strips, nasal naloxone spray and nasal naloxone instructions), a Contraception bag (latex or non-latex condoms, latex dental dams, lubrication, non-latex internal condoms and/or non-latex gloves) and/or a COVID-19 Harm Reduction bag (KN95s, a saline nasal spray, EmergenC and antimicrobial wipes). On this form, students can also request a sharps container to safely dispose of needles and other sharp objects.
All of the materials provided in Harm Reduction bags are free. When an Opiate Harm Reduction bag is requested, the Schacht Center asks that the student watch a linked video to understand the basics of naloxone interventions and safe administration if they cannot attend the in-person training.
Through the introduction of Narcan training sessions, NaloxBoxes and the Harm Reduction bag system, the Schacht center aims to create an informed and well-equipped student body where Smithies are better prepared to take care of themselves, each other and the broader Northampton community.
