'Get up, stand up!' - giving people the means to respond to opioid overdose

This report was written as an evaluation of the Take Home Naloxone (THN) program at Access Health in St Kilda, Victoria. Access Health is a primary health service, managed by The Salvation Army Crisis Services located in the adjoining building in Grey St, St Kilda. The THN program - established in conjunction with Harm Reduction Victoria (HRV) -was the first if its kind in the state, to facilitate the distribution of a (then) Schedule 4 drug to opioid users and their peers. However, the early success of the model was soon replicated at a number of further community and primary health care services within inner-urban Melbourne. The expansion of peer distribution complemented a State Government funded initiative, the Community Overdose Prevention and Education program (known as COPE), which built on a Government commitment to increase community access to naloxone. Naloxone is an antidote to heroin overdoses, insofar as it rapidly revives the victims of an opioid overdose. The possession and use of naloxone had largely been confined to medical professionals - such as paramedics and Emergency Department medics called to attend to a case of overdose. This evaluation was primarily conducted during the first twelve months of the program. Verbal briefings on the iterative findings from the evaluation were used by the staff team to improve elements of the program design over time.