Giving Compass' Take:

• Recovery houses and programs can be a significant help when battling opioid addictions at colleges. However, not many exist because colleges do not have the financing and due to the stigma attached to addiction. 

•Why are on campus recovery dorms a good idea? How does this address access? What are some of the challenges? 

• Read about the pervasiveness of the opioid addiction in the foster care system.

Almost unheard of five years ago, collegiate recovery programs are multiplying amid an opioid epidemic that claimed the lives of 4,110 Americans under 25 in 2016, the last year for which the figure is available. That’s almost double the number of young people who died of opioid overdoses in 2006.

Those grim statistics, and a flurry of seed funds from state governments and nonprofit organizations, are compelling colleges to take the often joked-about issue of campus drug use much more seriously, acknowledging a problem that still makes many campus leaders — especially in recruitment, development, and alumni offices — uncomfortable.

In 2013, there were a couple dozen collegiate recovery programs; today, there are around 200, according to advocates.

The epidemic has also accelerated a shift in attitudes toward addiction, these advocates say. Long condemned as a moral failing, addiction is increasingly seen as a public health issue, worthy of public dollars.

Research suggests that recovery programs benefit both students and colleges. One national survey found that students who participate in such programs have higher grade point averages than their peers and are more likely to graduate. Just 8 percent relapse, on average.

Read the full article about recovery houses at college by Kelly Field at The Hechinger Report.