Increased access to life-saving Naloxone an important step – but alone it will not stem the tide
The Forward Trust, a national addiction recovery charity has welcomed the planned expansion of life-saving opioid overdose treatment and a new alcohol and drug workforce plan.
In an announcement today, the government has issued plans to update legislation to enable more professionals to provide take-home supplies of Naloxone to save lives.
The number of drug-related deaths in England and Wales is at an all-time high and according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the overall rising trend over the past decade has been driven primarily by deaths involving opiates.
Naloxone is an effective, cheap and easy to administer drug that can save lives by reversing the reduced breathing rate caused by an opioid overdose and thus preventing death.
The legislative change means the medicine can be given to a family member, friend or support worker of a person who is known to be using opiates to use in the event of an overdose.
Because of the potential impact that Naloxone can have on reducing drug-related deaths, the Forward Trust plans to train all staff to administer the medicine.
The charity has also recently issued a national alert to frontline staff in response to the increase in Synthetic Opioids and Nitazenes which are entering the UK drug supply with more potency and frequency.
However, Mike Trace, CEO of The Forward Trust and former Deputy Drug Tsar has warned that the expansion of Naloxone alone is not a panacea to solving the drug deaths crisis in the UK.
He said; “The actions the government have outlined indicate that this public health crisis is being taken seriously. If we put Naloxone in the right hands, the greater the likelihood that we can save lives.
“But that is not all, evidence suggests that many of those who die from a fatal overdose from heroin and other illicit opioids had previously experienced a non-fatal overdose, some on multiple occasions. There are critical moments associated with fatal drug poisoning but opportunities to identify people at high risk are being missed.
“Whilst the pressures on the system are immense, every addiction related death must be viewed as avoidable.
The government is today also publishing a new plan to expand and improve the drug and alcohol treatment and recovery workforce.
Mike Trace added;
“Forward Trust welcomes the government’s commitment to expand the addiction and recovery workforce as part of its 10-year drugs strategy for England. Bolstering the workforce comes at a time when we are also seeing more dangerous drugs entering supply chains and increased levels of drug and alcohol addiction post pandemic.
“Addiction, no matter how entrenched, is a treatable condition. Recovery from it is possible, with the right levels of support and access to specialist interventions. But all too often the treatment system kicks in far too late in someone’s addiction journey. And, depending on where you live, access to long term recovery can be non-existent.”