The Sunnyside Longevity Project is hosting two events in partnership with Northern Arizona Healthcare with the theme “Opioid Use and Chronic Pain: From Addiction to Whole Person Care.”
Emery Eaves, associate research professor at the Center for Health Equity Research at Northern Arizona University, and Lisa Hardy, associate professor of anthropology and founding member of the Sunnyside Longevity Project, will be holding a workshop for health care providers titled “Drug Seeking and Gate Keeping: What your patients aren’t telling you about chronic pain.”
The event will take place at 12:15 p.m. Oct. 23 in Flagstaff Medical Center’s McGee Auditorium, 1200 N. Beaver St. Continuing medical education credits are available for this training.
Additionally, Eaves and Hardy will be hosting a free overdose prevention training session in collaboration with Sonoran Prevention Works, which will be available to the Coconino community from 10 a.m. to noon Oct. 21 at the Murdoch Community Center, 203 E. Brannen Ave.
Participants will learn how to prevent, recognize and respond to an opioid overdose, with an emphasis on how to use the life-saving medication naloxone. Free naloxone kits will be distributed to any person who may be in a position to assist an overdose victim.
“We think these workshops are crucial for helping caregivers and medical providers build the skills and knowledge in our community to help with addiction and the management of chronic pain,” Hardy said. “This is particularly important when we know inequality makes these issues much worse. People who are already living in conditions of poverty, for example, are hit harder and in different ways with serious medical conditions like chronic pain and addiction to opioids.”
For registration information, contact Hardy at lisa.jane.hardy@gmail.com.