Longwood students, faculty and staff are now able to recover together in the newly started support network, Longwood Recovers. Any members of the Longwood community who may be suffering from substance abuse issues are now able to join in a private, comfortable environment to learn the steps to recovery.
The Longwood Recovers project is led by Assistant Professor in Counselor Education Kevin Doyle. The project received $10,000 in grant funding from the Stacy Matthews Foundation.
Doyle said, “Around the country, there are various schools that have established what are called Collegiate Recovery communities, and these have arisen because recovering students — and I’m talking about recovering from alcohol and drug addiction — have said, ‘We need some support in navigating our recovery on the college campus,’ and it’s one of the more challenging places to be in recovery.”
He further stated, “This is nothing specific to Longwood or anywhere else. It’s just a difficult time of life to be in recovery when a lot of people are experimenting with substance use and sometimes without a problem, but sometimes being surrounded by that, as a recovering person, is really difficult.”
Doyle commented that he has been given support from a wide range of offices and departments at Longwood University, saying, “It's a campus-wide project.”
“Maybe the credit I might deserve is getting it started, but it couldn’t happen without a lot of buy- in from the university,” he said.
Speaking on Longwood Recovers, Doyle said, “We want to provide something that’s there for students who want to make a change, or to even just say, ‘I’d like to hear about this,’ as well as support the students who already are in recovery.
Every year, there are some students who have to leave Longwood and go to treatment, and that’s true of every university.”
Speaking on why a student may have difficulty knowing if he or she has a problem, Doyle said, “There are a lot of pieces to that. One is that there’s a real stigma, a negative label or negative belief with people with substance abuse problems, and so a lot of people think it’s a sign of weakness.”
“The second part, I think, is that a lot of times with this age group, things haven’t yet progressed to the point where it’s completely obvious. Sometimes, people in their 30s or 40s have lost jobs, have had multiple arrests or DUIs, things like that, so it’s very clear,” he said.
The social acceptability of using is another issue to know if one has a problem. “The ramifications of ... drinking too much and missing class are a lot different from the ramifications of drinking too much and missing work,” said Doyle.
According to Doyle, the most common causes of addiction include if one's family has a history of addiction, exposure to the drug in one's environment and how highly addictive the drug may be.
Currently, Longwood Recovers is specific to substance abuse. Doyle commented that there might be a possibility that the support network may include other addictions in the future, such as gambling or eating disorders.
Longwood Recovers does not provide treatment for substance abuse. Doyle recommended setting up an appointment with Counseling Center at the Health & Wellness Center if there are any concerns with substance abuse.
Doyle said, “Although we’re prioritizing students, I think there will be a role for faculty and staff as well. At a university this size, there will be recovering faculty and staff. And some of them will have the opportunity to have had some of those negative [consequences] in their lives because we’re older and gotten to recovery in that manner,
so they might be a tremendous source of support to students.”
He further stated, “This is a growing movement nationally ... We’re part of this movement now, and I’m really looking forward to seeing this get started.”
The first meeting of Longwood Recovers occurred Wednesday, March 6. The next meeting will be on Wednesday, March 20. All meetings are on Wednesday at noon in the Tea Room of Dorrill Dining Hall.
To learn more about Longwood Recovers, email Doyle at longwoodrecovers@longwood.edu or speak to Doyle, himself at doyleks@longwood.edu. There are hopes to have a website in the future as well as a Facebook page to reach out to more students.
