NALOXONE
SUPPLY AND DEMAND
Naloxone supply can still be something of a postcode lottery, particularly outside of urban centres. Elli-Jay McNally describes how Lincolnshire Recovery Partnership has teamed-up with Co-op pharmacies to boost local access
D ee is a harm reduction peer champion at Lincolnshire Recovery Partnership. Not long ago, however, her life looked quite different.‘ I wouldn’ t be sat here today if it wasn’ t for naloxone,’ says Dee.‘ I was using heroin on a regular basis. Someone came round with some stuff and said it was really strong. Me being me, I thought I was clever and could handle the dose but as soon as I took it, I was on the floor. It was so quick. Next thing I knew, my friend was on top of me administering naloxone.’
Dee lost her brother to a heroin overdose prior to this. For these reasons, being an advocate for naloxone carriage is really important to Dee and her family.‘ Unfortunately, naloxone wasn’ t about as much back then, so we didn’ t know much about it,’ she says.‘ I know naloxone saves lives, and it needs to be shouted about from the rooftops. People should carry it all the time. It’ s so important that people are educated on it. You’ ll be surprised how many people don’ t know about it – it doesn’ t matter if you don’ t know someone personally who uses drugs, you could see anyone on the street who might need it at any time, and you could save their life.’
RURAL REACH In England, anyone can carry a naloxone kit and use it in an emergency to save a life. It’ s available from drug treatment providers and from some pharmacies, but accessing these locations is not always possible or easy, especially in rural areas such as Lincolnshire.
Lincolnshire Recovery Partnership, which is delivered on behalf of Turning Point in partnership with Double Impact and Framework, has been working to increase access to naloxone across the county. Their latest initiative has seen them partner up with, and supply, 36 Co-op pharmacies in Lincolnshire with naloxone kits that will be available for free to local residents.
In a real collaborative effort, colleagues from Lincolnshire Recovery Partnership trained Co-op pharmacy staff how to administer naloxone through a combination of online and inperson sessions at Lincolnshire
Co-op’ s headquarters and Co-op funeral homes across the county. The training sessions were based on research from the University of Bristol, conducted in partnership with colleagues and service users from Turning Point Somerset.
The original project saw a co-designed naloxone campaign and pharmacy training interventions to encourage people to carry naloxone. The sessions covered what naloxone is, how it works, signs of – and risk factors for – opioid overdose, how to use a kit to save a life, and how to effectively supply a naloxone kit in the community.
TRUSTED RELATIONSHIPS Between January and April, more than 100 colleagues at Lincolnshire Co-op were trained
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