Substance Use Disorder Committee

The College of Medicine’s Substance Use Disorder Committee is another resource available to help any medical student with a substance abuse problem, without involvement of the administration.  

The purpose of the SUD Committee is:

• To prevent harm to patients caused by impaired students. 
• To intervene and professionally evaluate students suspected of having a substance use disorder.
• To provide confidential treatment options for students.
• To work independently of the College of Medicine Dean’s Office as long as the student is cooperative with treatment and evaluated by an addiction specialist to be unimpaired and not in jeopardy of putting patients at risk.  
• To help create an atmosphere of interdependence, responsibility to and for colleagues, and compassionate caring within the College of Medicine.  

Contact Information
The SUD Committee is comprised of two students from each medical school class and a faculty member who is an Addiction Specialist who is independent of the medical school administration.  The names of the class representatives are listed on MedOneStop, along with contact information and screening tools for substance use disorders. 

Any University of Cincinnati College of Medicine student who is concerned about self or a peer and his/her use of substance(s) is invited to e-mail one of the SUD committee members using the following email: sudcom@ucmail.uc.edu. 

To respect the identity of a peer, students are asked not to share the fellow student’s name in the initial e-mail, only the behavior(s) which are of concern. A member of the SUD Committee will contact the student expressing the concern to gather more specific information and discuss the situation further.

Students are asked to include the year (Year I, II, III, IV) of the student of concern in the subject line of the e-mail. This allows SUD to assign the concern to someone from a different class as the referred student. This is done because the two SUD Committee members who will contact the referring student for more information will need to know the name of the student and would like to remain as impartial as possible.

These two SUD Committee members will be the only two who know the name of the student; they may also contact this student directly. 

Also include in the email:

• Descriptions of events that are of concern.
• Frequency of events that are of concern.
• Any required/mandated activities that the student is missing.
• Knowledge of any school performance that might be affected.
• Symptoms of intoxication while at school, if known.
• Symptoms of withdrawal, if known. 
• Hazardous use of any drug, including driving while intoxicated.
• Social or legal problems associated with intoxication, fighting, arrests etc.  

After a SUD Committee member talks with you, the committee will decide if a colleague should talk with the Addiction Specialist about a potential abuse problem and need for further consultation/evaluation of the student. 

More Information