The eighTh NaTioNal Service USer coNfereNce
‘T
he case for take-home naloxone is quite
clear,’ activist Kevin Jaffray told the
morning’s
Naloxone – keeping up the
campaign
session. ‘So why isn’t it in the
hands of the people who need it?’
While take-home naloxone programmes in Scotland
andWales had led to a fall in opioid-related fatalities,
England saw a 32 per cent rise in deaths in 2013. ‘That’s
because we have no national programme,’ said Jaffray.
‘It’s disgraceful. I’m not saying it’s a magic wand, but the
fact is we could have saved at least half of these people.’
Naloxone had ‘been around since 1961’ he told the
conference, and endorsed by the WHO, NTA and
ACMD, among many others. ‘This medicine saves
lives,’ he stated. ‘So why are we still having to fight?’
Many of the arguments against naloxone – that it
encouraged people to take more drugs, or deterred
them from seeking support – were myths, he said.
‘The arguments that come up time and time again
when we’re campaigning in local areas are comical.
Naloxone will bring people into services, not the
opposite.’ In fact it had the power to act as a turning
point in people’s lives, he stressed. ‘When I OD’d and
was brought back by naloxone, I accessed services.
Because it scared the shit out of me.’
An overdose situation could add up to £20,000 per
person in costs to the emergency services, while an
overdose prevented from becoming fatal by naloxone
cost around £400. ‘Not only is that a £19,600 saving,
you’ve still got a human being breathing and a family
kept together,’ he said. ‘We want the Medicines and
Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to
publish draft regulations on naloxone now, and we also
want Public Health England to be more active in local
direction around take-home naloxone programmes.
‘We have to work with what we’ve got,’ he told the
conference, which meant user activismwas vital. ‘You’re
out there on the frontline. Form naloxone action groups
in your local area, get trained and pass the training on in
whatever capacity you can. Lobby your local
commissioning boards, MPs and health and wellbeing
boards. Anywhere you can get this out there, do it.’
Take-home naloxone guidance had just been
published by PHE, Rosanna O’Connor told the
conference. This would act as a ‘nudge to local
authorities and partners’ to promote wider availability
in advance of the change to medicines
regulations – which currently only allow
naloxone to be supplied on a prescription basis
– expected in October.
Meanwhile, the lunch break saw an
Action
on naloxone
session chaired by Niamh Eastwood
of Release and Mat Southwell of CoAct, looking
at what could be done to challenge lack of
availability. Delegates were handed a list of local
authority areas that were not providing
naloxone – a substantial number.
‘How far is it being rolled out?’ asked Niamh
Eastwood. ‘It looks like even in a number of
areas where they’re saying “yes, we’re
providing it” they’re not doing it sufficiently.’
And for those local authority areas that had
stated they were not providing it, she said, ‘we
need to find out why. Whose decision is this?
There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be available.
It’s cheap, and it saves lives’.
Release now intended to challenge non-
provision through legal action, she stated. ‘We
need to find someone for a test case, and then what we
can do is look at taking a judicial review. There’s no
guarantee we’ll win, but it’s one of the ways we can push
the boundaries on this. There are very strong right-to-life
and human rights arguments here. People who use drugs
have been stigmatised for years. This approach of taking
legal action is one way of giving people a voice again.’
The day also saw naloxone training delivered by
outreach worker and activist Philippe Bonnet. ‘The
turnout was fantastic,’ he said. ‘I showed how you can
train people very quickly, so those people can now go
out into their communities and spread the message.
In terms of those areas not providing naloxone, the
vital thing remained perseverance, he stressed. ‘Identify
champions and knock down doors, and make use of the
service user groups and advocacy groups that can do
that on your behalf. But absolutely, don’t take no for an
answer. One thing’s for sure – it’s not rocket science.’
PHE’s advice for local authorities at
10 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| March 2015
SoundbiteS
‘Demand naloxone
in your area. Don’t
pussyfoot around,
demand it.’
Kevin Jaffray
‘One of the reasons
we’ve been able to
bring change around
naloxone internation-
ally is because active
drug users and former
drug users have
worked together.’
Mat SOuthwell
Philippe Bonnet, outreach worker and
activist, delivered naloxone training.
The
Action on naloxone
session was
chaired by Niamh Eastwood of Release
and Mat Southwell of CoAct.
LET’S GET IT
OUT THERE
The day saw repeated calls for
life-saving, and cost-effective,
naloxone to be made more
widely available. DDN reports
