Emergency overdose training event to be held April 1 at Radford

One Care of Southwest Virginia will host a REVIVE! intranasal naloxone training session on Saturday, April 1 at 10 a.m. in Radford University’s Bonnie Auditorium. The session is free and open to the public.

Naloxone, a prescription medication, is a specific opioid antagonist drug that reverses the effects that opioids have in the brain. Long used by emergency personnel, the drug is being made available to individuals through area pharmacies as a means of countering the high rate of accidental opioid overdose deaths in Southwest Virginia.

REVIVE! is a training program by the Commonwealth of Virginia to educate laypersons to revive opioid overdose victims. The one-hour session will share how to save the life of a family member or friend who has accidentally overdosed on an opioid, according to Dr. Sarah Melton, professor of pharmacology practice at East Tennessee State University and chair of One Care of Southwest Virginia, a consortium of regional substance abuse coalition.

Melton, who will give the training program, said the session will include hands-on training about the signs of an opioid overdose and the process of handling the emergency. She added that kits and directions for delivering naloxone will be available for those who think they know someone at risk of an opioid overdose. Registration will be required. 

Registrants will learn how to identify causes and risk factors, discuss common myths about overdose reversal and get step-by-step direction for intranasal naloxone administration during the free, one-hour session. 

The session is the fourth in a series of regional sessions to minimize the painful impact of opioid abuse. The sessions are a broad collaboration led by the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services and including the Virginia Department of Health, the Virginia Department of Health Professions and area recovery community organizations such as the McShin Foundation, One Care of Southwest Virginia and the Substance Abuse and Addiction Recovery Alliance of Virginia, among others.

For more information, contact Melton at (276) 971-6097 or meltonst@etsu.edu.

Mar 28, 2017
Don Bowman
(540) 831-5182
dbowman@radford.edu