City of Fort Worth, UNT Health Science Center push to combat the opioid crisis: "train-the-trainer"
NORTH TEXAS — As we continue to see an opioid crisis in our communities, there's an overwhelming push to combat this.
It's something The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth is getting behind in a big way.
"We are seeing even accidental overdoses where people don't know that a pill that they may have obtained from a coworker or a friend or someone at school that that pill might be laced with Fentanyl," the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth Associate Professor Teresa Wagner said.
Through funding from the City of Fort Worth, HSC is now launching a series of trainings about the dangers and how to respond with Narcan.
"Narcan is a drug that helps to mitigate the effect of opioids in the body," Wagner said. "It neutralizes opioids in the body so it can bring someone out of an opioid overdose at least temporarily until EMS arrives."
Once trained on this, attendees will be able to educate other local communities and organizations. The concept is "train-the-trainer."
Wagner said it will provide organizations with training materials, 24 Naloxone two-dose cartons, 60 drug disposal bags and a virtual train-the-trainer toolkit.
In some cases, they may even qualify for a $1,500 incentive from the university for doing so.
Interested organizations must:
- Plan and host a Naloxone training event in the City of Fort Worth.
- Secure an appropriate training venue with PowerPoint, and audio and visual capabilities.
- Recruit a minimum of 24 attendees to receive the full payment.
- Ensure completion of online registration and before and after training assessments for each attendee.
- Option to request virtual reality training with all types of providers about having difficult conversations with patients when addiction is suspected.
- Submit an invoice for payment within 30 daysafter training.
"I see it making a huge difference in terms of the amount of people reached," Wagner said.
For those interested in learning more or possibly signing up for training, click here.