The TenTh naTional Service USer conference
Take Five
Five minutes’ training and an inexpensive kit is all it takes to save a life – so why isn’ t naloxone coverage countrywide, asks Philippe Bonnet after a non-stop day
I CAN’ T BELIEVE THIS YEAR MARKS TEN YEARS OF THE DDN SU CONFERENCE IN BIRMINGHAM. How exciting and powerful. It has been a pleasure and privilege to attend this wonderful event.
I think it must be four years since I started training people on naloxone. The first couple of years were all about training individuals, without being able to issue kits. Last year, thanks to law changes, I managed to not only train but issued 35 kits as well.
I thought I might bring 50 kits this year, to see if I could beat last year’ s record. Within minutes, someone approached me, asking if I had kits to give out. They informed me they did not have naloxone in their town. I took them to my little corner and quickly trained them, and issued them with this life-saving medication. It was seconds before someone else saw me and asked me for a kit. And so it went on throughout the morning.
By lunchtime, I had issued 50 kits... and ran out! Then one of my colleague told me the organiser was looking for me, asking if I was ready for the afternoon session. I thought, o-oh, I have no kits left! Nevertheless, the session went ahead. I think I did my best to explain how sorry I was I could not issue them a kit, but at the same time I felt relieved that 50 people would leave Birmingham with a kit in their pockets.
None of the people I trained that day had naloxone, and they had come from all over the country. This made me realise how truly blessed we are in Birmingham. Our drug-related deaths have not risen, unlike the rest of the country. This is surely a testimony to all the hard work, commitment and pragmatism of my colleagues, from frontline workers to commissioning bodies, over the last five years.
To date, I must have trained around 5,000 staff
across England and distributed around 2,000 kits to SUs. Naloxone saves lives. Full stop. And next year I will bring 100 kits with me!
Philippe is chair of the Birmingham Naloxone Steering Group and regional naloxone and NSP lead for CGL
Finding balance
Away from it all in the therapy room, Lois Skilleter and Sam Lofthouse gave delegates a taster of massage and Reiki
THIS WAS MY FOURTH YEAR of offering voluntary therapies at the DDN conference – it’ s becoming a wonderful annual event for me, and
my students who have come have also enjoyed it very much. This year Sam accompanied me, and we were able to offer Indian head massage, Reiki and hand massages.
Indian head massage has only been around in the West for about 35 years, and is a very relaxing mix of the Indian traditions of hair oiling, chakra balancing and barbers’ head
massage, combined with the shoulder, neck and upper back massage that is so needed by westerners with our high stress levels. Our clients loved it and found they felt surprisingly lighter and happier after experiencing it.
Reiki is Japanese in origin and provides an energy balance, leading to relaxation and clarity of mind. Clients are often surprised to feel tingling or‘ hot spots’ even when the practitioner is not physically touching them. The practitioner is acting as a channel for the Reiki energy, allowing the client to draw what is needed through them – hence this treatment is very empowering for the client as they are in fact doing their own healing, with the practitioner merely a facilitator. Hand massage is somewhat underrated, I feel: it’ s non intrusive, very versatile, yet can bring real relaxation to the recipient. Our clients who opted for this treatment really enjoyed it, noticing how much lighter
and less tense their hands felt afterwards. I have recently done hand massage with a dementia group and both carers and patients found it soothing and helpful. It’ s also a good bonding therapy: some of the mums I work with like to do it for their children at night to help with sleep.
All of these therapies are gentle, relaxing and have few side effects, and can be used with vulnerable people as long as basic cautions are taken into account and a doctor’ s note received if the client is suffering from any contraindications. It is heartening to see complementary medicines becoming more accepted: while they do not replace medical advice and treatment, they can be a valuable support when used alongside conventional medicine.
Lois’ s website is www. eartherealofyorkshire. co. uk and she is always happy to discuss training and treatments.
18 | drinkanddrugsnews | March 2017 www. drinkanddrugsnews. com