UC students aim to expand methadone access to treat opioid use disorder

A team of UC students hopes a proposal to expand methadone access will garner national attention in their attempt to fight the opioid crisis. UC nursing student Yara Chaouali and criminal justice student Selma Younes, spoke with Spectrum News journalist Javari Burnett about the proposal to help residents across Ohio.

Chaouali and Younes, along with psychology student Samantha Jackson and political science student Tala Hamdan recently won the 2025-26 Health Policy Challenge, hosted by UC’s Portman Center for Policy Solutions. This week the students are presenting their work at the Policy Challenge Super Bowl at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics.

Their innovative proposal reimagines methadone access through remote monitoring, expanding treatment for patients in rural areas and locations without adequate service. Their work was supported by UC Nursing Professor Rachel Baker, also an Ohio state representative, who has championed methadone accessibility with proposed legislation.

“Everything down to the details is very thorough, and we think it’s very doable for Ohio,” Chaouali told Spectrum News. “We think that Ohio has a responsibility to help these people become functioning members of society.”

Spectrum News reported that as Ohio continues to confront one of the nation’s highest rates of opioid-related deaths, the students’ proposed pilot program would cost $750,000 annually, with funding coming through the OneOhio Recovery Foundation.

The two-year initiative would partner with licensed opioid treatment programs to use the remote monitoring system Sonara and provide eligible patients with 7-28 days of take-home medication, replacing daily clinic visits with a virtual dosing process.

This approach aims to reduce transportation barriers, one of the top obstacles for treatment in Hamilton County, while maintaining patient safety, according to Spectrum News.

The students want an approach for dealing with the opioid crisis that is more humane.

“We want to make sure that people who have opioid use disorder are not being punished for that,” Younes told Spectrum News. “We want to make sure that they are being treated as patients with an illness, just as anyone else would.”

Baker says that the students’ proposal builds on Ohio House Bill 300, which aimed to expand methadone access but did not pass last session.

“How can we think more innovatively about new ways to deliver health care?” Baker told Spectrum News. “As our workforce gets smaller, we have a decrease in funding and access issues throughout the state.”

View the story on the Spectrum News website.

Learn more about the students' proposal on the UC College of Nursing webpage.

Featured top image shows (left to right) Yara Chaouali, Selma Younes, Tala Hamdan and Samantha Jackson.  Photo provided.