More than 30 faculty and students completed REVIVE! training on Oct. 11.

REVIVE! is the Opioid Overdose and Naloxone Education program for the Commonwealth of Virginia. The training was provided by Crystal Songer and Kat Heredia, of Piedmont Community Services. Training was also provided by Pamela Chitwood, of the West Piedmont Health District, Virginia Department of Health.

The REVIVE! training trained attendees how to recognize and respond to an opioid overdose emergency using naloxone. This included understanding opioids, how opioid overdoses happen, risk factors for opioid overdoses, and how to respond to an opioid overdose emergency with the administration of naloxone.

Everyone that completed the training received a REVIVE! Opioid Overdose Response Kit.

Since 2013, fatal drug overdose has been the leading method of unnatural death in Virginia, surpassing all other forms of unnatural death, including homicide, suicide, motor vehicle accidents, and undetermined deaths. Opioids have been the driving force behind the large increases in fatal overdoses.

“Overdoses are not always intentional or a result of addiction,” said John Phillips, Assistant Professor in the Division of Nursing.

The training was coordinated by Franklin County native and Boone Scholar student Jenna Lambert, senior. Lambert was under the direction of Phillips.

“Anyone may be trained easily on this lifesaving intervention,” Phillips said. “The life saved could be from an accidental overdose by your grandmother or child.”

For more information about the free training, contact Chitwood at 540-484-0292 or [email protected] .