Cuero Health: CRH Provides Opioid Overdose Education/Prevention Training in Late April

Cuero, Texas: Cuero Regional Hospital is partnering with Office of Rural Health/Texas Department of Agriculture and their partner UTHSCSA (UT Health San Antonio School of Nursing, School of Medicine) to provide a two-hour Opioid Overdose Education/Prevention Training on April 26 from 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM at St. Michael's Church Hall, 104 N. McLeod Street in Cuero.

At this training, participants will learn to recall signs and symptoms of opioid overdose and appropriate administration of Naloxone. The training will be presented by Mark Kinzly and Charles Thibodeaux, LCDC, BAAS, both with the Texas Overdose Naloxone Initiative. Their full bios are below.

“The purpose of this training is to decrease the adverse impact of opioids on our residents, with an immediate emphasis on reducing overdose mortality,” said Lynn Falcone, CEO of Cuero Health. “We are grateful to have partners providing this training in rural areas and to be one of nine rural health sites selected.”

The UT Health San Antonio School of Nursing and TONI are executing this training to inform first responders, community organization members and individuals of the basics of overdose education and prevention. This helps communities to better engage with individuals who may be experiencing difficulty with opioids or know someone who is. Attendees will learn to recognize, respond to and evaluate an opioid overdose.

“We at Cuero Health recognize the vital importance of providing these training sessions not only to our staff and others in the healthcare field, but also to the general public as drug overdose is a widespread health issue. We each can have a role in understanding the risks of opioids, as well as how to help people struggling with opioid use to find care and treatment,” said Falcone.

Continuing Education is available to those in Nursing, Social Work, LPC, LCDC, Peer Support Providers, MDs, & DOs. For those requesting CE, please register online prior to the class:
http://ce.uthscsa.edu/browse/nursing/free/courses/opioid-overdose-education-prevention-training-april-26-2019

Continuing Education:

University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s

Commission on Accreditation. 2.0 Contact Hours (RNs, APRNs)

University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio School of Nursing is approved by the Texas State Board of Socials Workers Examiners to provide Social Worker CE. 2.0 Credit Hours (Social Workers, LCDC)

Centralized Training Infrastructure for Evidence Based Practices is an approved provider by the Texas State Board of Examiners of Professional Counselors. 2.0 CEUs (LPC, Peer Support Providers)

The Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians

2.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ (MD, DO only)

Presenter Bios

Mark Kinzly
Mark Kinzly, has been working in the field of public health and Harm Reduction for the past 30 years focusing his work around drug user health. His work focuses on the barriers of drug user health in the current system driven by policies both criminally and medically.

Charles Thibodeaux LCDC, BAAS

Charles Thibodeaux LCDC, BAAS, is a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor (LCDC) since 1992 and has worked in the substance abuse field for over 28 years. During that time, he worked in residential treatment settings for adults as well as adolescents. He worked at a community based MHMR where he supervised an HIV prevention street outreach program for 12 years which followed a harm reduction philosophy whose target population was active IV drug users and sex industry workers. He worked for the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) for 10 years. At DSHS, he worked for HIV division for one year and the remaining 9 years he worked for the substance abuse/mental health division. He is one of the pioneers who helped get the first underground syringe service program started in Texas. He has also presented on harm reduction topics including overdose awareness and prevention for several years at the statewide DSHS HIV Street Outreach Conference as well as the DSHS Behavioral Health Institute Conference. He has worked as a Patient Navigator/Consultant with Linkage to Care for Hepatitis C getting individuals tested, treated, and cured of Hepatitis C. Charles is currently a co- founder of the Texas Overdose Naloxone Initiative (TONI) which brings overdose awareness and trainings throughout the entire state of Texas.

For more information about Cuero Regional Hospital, please visit www.cuerohospital.org. Cuero Regional Hospital is located at 2550 N. Esplanade in Cuero, Texas and offers an ED- Level IV Trauma Center, on-staff General Surgeon, and a TeleStroke program. For more information, please visit www.cuerohospital.org or call (361) 275-6191.