Community Engagement
OPMOS Community Education
The Office of Pain Management & Opioid Stewardship, (OPMOS) offers individualized opioid education programs for healthcare providers and community nonprofits, for patients and families, and for local students, teachers, and parents. You can read about some of the programs below. We are dedicated to this community, and proud to serve all its constituencies. We’d love to hear from you Charlottesville—tell us what you’re seeing, tell us what you’d like to see, and let us know how we can help at: opmos@uvahealth.org
The Opioid Crisis: What Charlottesville Educators Need to Know
Monticello High School
November 6th, 2023
Presenters: Drs. Dania Cyd Chastain and Robert Goldstein UVA; Christian Renwick, UVA School of Medicine ’24; and Wendy Carlton, OPMOS Program Director.
The Office of Pain Management and Opioid Stewardship (OPMOS) was invited to speak at the Albemarle County Public Schools education conference, “Making Connections.”
Seminar topics for faculty & administrators included:
- Understanding opioids, exposures for teens, and adolescent drug use
- The impact of fentanyl, xylazine, and counterfeit pills
- How to recognize substance use and abuse
- School connectedness as a protective factor and support system for students and their families
- Overdoses: how to recognize them, how to stop them, and Good Samaritan Laws
- Narcan training
- Being an active bystander, harm reduction, and medication safety
Charlottesville Albemarle Dental Society (CADS)
A CADS Accredited CME Program
May 25th, 2023
Presenters: Drs. Dania Cyd Chastain, Lynn Kohan, Priyanka Singla and Andrew Mendelson, UVA; Nate Tricker, DDS; Virginia Leavell, Charlottesville-Albemarle EMS Chief; Christian Renwick, UVA School of Medicine ‘24
An individualized program focused on topics including:
- New CDC opioid prescribing guidelines
- Prescribing practices of general dentists and dental specialists
- Acute pain management
- Chronic pain management
- Treating pain
- Warning signs for opioid use disorder in healthcare providers
- Narcan training
- Medication safety and responsibility
The Opioid Crisis: What Charlottesville Teens and Parents Need to Know
St. Anne’s Belfield School
March 29th , 2023
Presenters: Drs. Dania Cyd Chastain, Priyanka Singla, and Andrew Mendelson UVA; Nate Tricker, DDS; Virginia Leavell, Charlottesville-Albemarle EMS Chief
Assembly topics for students, faculty & administrators included:
- The opioid crisis: statistics and demographics
- Understanding opioids
- Adolescent drug use
- The impact of fentanyl and counterfeit pills
- Behavioral and physical signs of drug use and abuse
- Overdoses—how to recognize them, how to stop them, Good Samaritan Laws
- Narcan training
- Being an active bystander, harm reduction, keeping meds safe at home
Webinar topics for parents included:
- The opioid crisis: statistics and demographics
- Understanding opioids
- Adolescent drug use
- Adolescent opioid use—potential exposures, access
- The impact of fentanyl and counterfeit pills
- Risk factors for drug use, and behavioral and physical signs of use and abuse
- Overdoses—how to recognize them, how to stop them, Good Samaritan Laws
- Harm reduction, keeping meds safe at home, being an active bystander
- How to talk to your kids about opioids and other drugs
Opioid Management for Hospitalists
A Sentara Accredited CME Program
Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital
April 6th, 2022
Presenters: Drs. Dania Cyd Chastain, Lynn Kohan, Robert Goldstein, Bhavana Yalamuru, Andrew Mendelson and Priyanka Singla, UVA Department of Anesthesiology/Division of Pain Medicine; Wendy Carlton, OPMOS Program Director UVA
An Individualized Program Focused on:
- Working with chronic pain patients in an acute care setting
- Opioid tapering strategies
- Working with challenging patients
- Treating with suboxone
- Educating patients, creating and using behavioral agreements
- Decreasing substance use disorder in patients with short-term opioid treatment plans
Community Engagement
Dr. Bob Goldstein, MD, Leads UVA Health Initiative to Increase Drug Take-Back Receptacles
Dr. Bob Goldstein, MD, pain management specialist in the Department of Anesthesiology learned of a problem from his patients, where unused or old prescription drugs often sit around at home without a safe way to dispose of them. According to Dr. Goldstein, these drugs can cause harm through misuse or being consumed by accident. Or if they are flushed down toilets, or leak into landfills, they cause environmental harm and contaminate the water supply.
Dr. Goldstein led a team effort to solve this problem and increase the availability of drug take-back receptacles. The goal was to provide greater access to medically and environmentally safe disposal locations. The team includes Anesthesiology, Pharmacy, Facility Management, the SPARK Initiative Administrative team and UVA-Health Administration.
According to Dr. Goldstein, “When the SPARK program came along,” he says, “I thought I would propose the idea of additional recovery boxes, and fortunately, the UVA Health Spark Innovation Committee liked the idea, too.” As a result of their efforts, six new Drug-Takeback Receptacles are now located at the following locations:
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- UVA Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Retail Pharmacy
- UVA Pantops Pharmacy
- UVA Pharmacy Ivy Road
- UVA Bookstore Pharmacy
- UVA Student Health Pharmacy
- UVA Augusta Pharmacy
- Outpatient Pharmacy at Education Resource Center (two previously existing receptacles)
- UVA Zion Crossroads Pharmacy (previously existing receptacle)
Click to learn more more about Dr. Bob Goldstein and his team’s efforts in the UVA School of Medicine’s Medicine in Motion feature article.
This was a collaborative effort with members of the Anesthesiology (Dr. Bob Goldstein, Wendy Carlton, Tyler Erikson), Pharmacy, Marketing and Administration departments. Despite torrential rains for part of the day, the program collected close to 100lbs of medications for disposal.
National Drug Take-Back Day
As featured on WVIR 29 News, Saturday, April 22nd, was National Drug Take-Back Day. UVA Anesthesiology in partnership with UVA Health, did its part by hosting a drive-through drug drop-off in front of the ERC. The drive-through event is in partnership with the Drug Enforcement Agency’s National Drug Take Back Day on April 24, 2023.
According to UVA Dr. Harrison Plunket, MD, “Across the country and across the state, there are multiple sites where people can go and drop off these medications.” If you missed the drive-through event, there are other opportunities to dispose of these unused prescriptions. “At the University of Virginia there’s a drop off box that is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Plunkett said.
JEDI Committee Partners with SNMA Discover Medicine Program to Teach Local High School Students
The Anesthesia JEDI Committee partnered with the Student National Medical Association’s (SNMA) Discover Medicine program on Nov 16th, 2023, and helped teach local high school students about the cardiovascular system. Discover Medicine is a year-long graduate-student run program designed to introduce high-schoolers from underrepresented backgrounds to medicine and biomedical sciences.
Each month, they discover a new aspect of medicine. November was Cardiovascular month, and December was pulmonology. Thank you to Drs. Paul Gallo, Emmad Kabil, Hamy Kassahun, and Erlyn Rudico for spending time mingling with the students and showing them basics of transthoracic echocardiograhy!
Cville Women’s 4-Miler
Several anesthesiology faculty members participated in the Charlottesville Women’s 4-Miler race in September. This is the largest all-women’s race in Virginia and over the years, it has raised millions of dollars for UVA’s Breast Care Program.
Cville Pride Festival
The latest JEDI event was the C’ville Pride Festival on September 17th! Despite the rain, it was wonderful celebrating with the community! Thank you to all who turned out in support!
Holiday Giving Project
For the 2023 Holiday Season, the Department once again sponsored 2 local Charlottesville families (4 children) through the Southwood Boys and Girls Club. Through this initiative, we were able to get everything on each child’s wish list, as well as Food Lion gift cards for the parents. In total, there were $1,290 and countless gift donations. Thank you all for your generosity — this would not be possible without your support!
On December 13th, the department held a gift wrapping party to prepare the gifts and dropped them off at the local Boys and Girls Club. Thank you to Abby Gilg for coordinating this project and making it such a success.
Boys & Girls Club Camp
The UVA Housestaff Council for Diversity and Inclusion (HCDI) recently hosted the second annual “Surgery & Anesthesia Day Camp” with the Boys & Girls Club of Central Virginia. Residents and faculty in the departments of Anesthesiology, Surgery, and Plastic Surgery guided local middle school students through hands-on simulation exercises. Activities included suturing using pigs’ feet, a laparoscopy simulation game, a CPR workshop, and intubation practice. The event also included a Q&A panel, where students had the opportunity to ask the residents about their experiences, and a learning session about the path to residency and different specialty options.