DuPage to extend heroin education program

DuPage County for the second straight year is expected to partner with a Hinsdale-based health education center to warn young people about the dangers of heroin.

County board members are scheduled to vote next week to approve a new contract with the Robert Crown Centers for Health Education to teach a comprehensive opioid prevention education program at middle and high schools around the county.

"The proposal is to continue what we started last year when eight schools participated," county board member Grant Eckhoff said. "This year, we're hoping to have at least 17 schools participate. We sent letters to all the superintendents and all the school districts encouraging them to participate."

Last year, the county set aside $100,000 to create a public education campaign in response to a record number of heroin deaths. There were 46 confirmed heroin-related deaths in DuPage in 2013.

So far, there have been 10 confirmed heroin deaths this year, officials said.

"It's the county's proposal to assist the school districts in educating students about the dangers of heroin," Eckhoff said. "We're hoping they all take advantage of it."

If the Robert Crown contract is renewed, the center will be paid $48,618 to provide opioid prevention education in schools between July 1 and June 30, 2016.

That amount would cover 100 percent of the cost for 10 schools participating in the program for the first time.

The county also would pay half the cost - a total of $9,723 - for seven schools that participated in the program last year and have agreed to do it for a second year. Those seven schools would each contribute $1,389.

County officials say the first year of the program was a success. It reached 2,475 students in eight schools and trained 47 teachers and 60 high school seniors.

"They don't bring all the kids into auditorium and give them a lecture," Eckhoff said of the program. "They incorporate it into the entire curriculum, so they talk about it multiple times in different ways."

Eckhoff said the hope is to someday have the program offered in every public middle and high school in DuPage.

In the meantime, county officials are planning to take other steps to address the heroin problem.

The county health department, for example, is talking about creating a test program that would reach out to heroin users and connect them with organizations that would support their efforts to get treatment and stay clean.