Holy Family among the latest schools to start an addiction recovery program in Pa.

Pat McElwaine struggled with drugs and alcohol as a student at Holy Family University in Northeast Philadelphia in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

There really weren’t any programs on campus to help him, he recalled.

But the Catholic university is about to change that, and McElwaine, program director and associate professor of the master’s in counseling psychology program there, is helping to lead the way.

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Holy Family, thanks to a $50,000 grant from the Independence Blue Cross Foundation, is starting a collegiate recovery program to help students and staff.

“It feels good to just be part of something that can make a difference in Holy Family students’ lives,” said McElwaine, Dr. Mac to those who know him. He is in his sixth year of teaching at Holy Family and has been in recovery for 13 years.

Since last year, the foundation has awarded grants to 12 universities in the Southeastern Pennsylvania counties of Philadelphia, Montgomery, Bucks, Chester, and Delaware, helping to either start or boost collegiate recovery programs.

The model was being highlighted at a panel discussion in Washington on Wednesday with three local House of Representative members, including Madeleine Dean (D., Pa.), who cowrote a book with her son about his addiction and recovery.

Kristina Canfield, executive director of the national Association of Recovery in Higher Education, who was participating in the meeting, said the Blue Cross program, which includes not only grants but technical support and mentoring to help them work, could expand statewide and serve as a national model.

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“This effective model ... is a game changer, and we are eager to replicate it with schools across the nation,” said Canfield, whose association received funding from Blue Cross to provide support and mentoring.

Of the 156 collegiate programs that are part of her network, Pennsylvania has the most at 14, and it is the fastest growing, she said. Pennsylvania State University’s program is one of the longest-running in the state. But she noted that there are other programs not affiliated with her group.

Students who struggle with addiction can be particularly vulnerable on college campuses where party life often is idolized, she said. She has been in recovery from heroin and cocaine use for 17 years and recalled how she struggled with it as a college student.

“Think about every TV show or movie you’ve ever seen about college life,” said Canfield, who is from Virginia and now based in Alabama. “What do they have in common? Partying.”

She started a collegiate recovery program at Ohio University, where she eventually finished her bachelor’s and got her master’s and has made it her life’s work, she said. Getting institutional funding for the programs has been one of the biggest challenges, she said. But the seed money from Blue Cross gives programs a chance to get started and then figure it out, she said.

“It’s relatively easy to show its importance then,” she said. “Look at what it’s doing to change school culture and students’ lives.”

While the initial Blue Cross grant is $50,000, schools also can apply for a second grant of $25,000, she said.

The Blue Cross effort also comes amid a continuing opioid epidemic. Steve Fera, executive vice president of public affairs for Independence Blue Cross, said the private corporate charitable foundation has committed $1 million to the effort, which is among a larger pool of $3.5 million that the foundation has targeted to fight opioid and substance abuse disorders.

In addition to Holy Family, other local schools that have received Blue Cross funding for programs include Bryn Mawr College, Temple, Thomas Jefferson, Cabrini, Eastern, Neumann, and Villanova Universities, as well as St. Joseph’s University, both the Hawk Hill and University City campuses, Community College of Philadelphia, and Montgomery County Community College.

Fera said 14 additional colleges are scheduled to receive funding in the next year.

The support is critical, he said, for students who may be away from home for the first time. With collegiate recovery programs, students have somewhere to go to share their thoughts and know they are not alone, he said.

“We can destigmatize the issue and we can accelerate recovery,” he said.

Canfield said collegiate recovery programs differ, but most emphasize peer-to-peer support, which is critical. They can offer a staff person, a designated space on campus for students to meet, and academic advising and programming. Schools have used the grant money to hire student workers, conduct needs assessments, provide refreshments at meetings, and host awareness programs, she said.

She hopes more funding will be forthcoming for the programs. There is a bill in Congress that would designate funding for collegiate recovery programs, she said.

She noted that President Joe Biden’s administration has said it wants to see a 25% increase in collegiate recovery programs nationally over the next five years.

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Holy Family received the Blue Cross grant over the summer and is preparing for its kickoff, McElwaine said. As well as offering a designated space, there also will be two groups that will meet weekly led by graduate students in the counseling psychology program — one for students in recovery or struggling with recovery and another for students who have loved ones struggling with addiction, he said.

“I thought it was a phenomenal idea,” said Mark Ryan Jr., 34, the graduate student who will lead one of the groups. “It gives students and employees an opportunity to find helpful resources.”

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Ryan, who has been in recovery for more than eight years, said when he was getting his teaching certification and coaching at Susquehanna University, he had to go outside the community to find recovery support.

“This collegiate recovery program is going to change the atmosphere and the culture,” said McElwaine, who got his bachelor’s from Holy Family in 2000 and his master’s in 2004. “It will allow students to see that this is a culture of acceptance. This is a culture of recovery here. My hope is this is something we continue for years and years to come.”