Kerry’s a lifesaver
AFTER a teenage girl saw her dad survive an accidental drugs overdose, she wanted to help safeguard his future.
The Fife youngster asked to be trained in how to deliver drug antidote injection naloxone so that if her dad or someone else overdoses – she could save their life.
Harm reduction nurse Kerry Watson works for charity Addaction in Fife and part of her work involves training people how to use naloxone, which included the teenager who was worried about her dad.
Naloxone is a medicine that can be used by family and friends to stop someone who has overdosed on heroin from dying. It reverses the effects of the opiate, giving them vital time to get the person to hospital.
Scotland was the first country in the world to introduce a national take-home naloxone programme where people can receive free antidote kits and training.
After successful pilot schemes, it was introduced by the Scottish Government in 2011 – and Kerry says it’s saving lives.
She said: “Prior to naloxone, 80 per cent of casualties from overdose were dead prior to the ambulance arriving.
“This girl witnessed her dad overdosing. He survived but it was quite traumatic.
“She phoned an ambulance and they got to him in time. She didn’t use drugs, she was still at school and stayed with her dad.”
Kerry trained the 16-year-old girl in how to use naloxone in case her dad accidentally overdosed again.
She said: “Obviously it was quite scary finding her dad like that. I was able to help her and give her confidence rather than that feeling of helplessness.
“It’s a tool of empowerment that means you can do something to help save a life.
“Her dad wasn’t a heavy user and he had no tolerance. You don’t know the purity of the drugs you’re getting.”
Kerry works with people who mainly inject drugs such as opiates.
Drug-related deaths are the highest they’ve been in Scotland since first recorded in 1996, with 867 last year.
Kerry says many of these deaths are down to accidental overdoses. She added: “Opiate overdose is preventable and if it’s witnessed, it’s reversible with naloxone.”
The drug-related death toll for women is the highest recorded in 20 years – hitting 275 last year.
And from 2011 to 2015, about 1200 children in Scotland lost a parent or a parental figure to a drug-related death. Most cases in Scotland are down to heroin, methadone, benzodiazepines such as Valium, gabapentin and alcohol.
Kerry said: “When you’re mixing these drugs, they react with the central nervous system and can lead to respiratory failure.
“The main risk for overdose is mixing drugs and also people’s tolerance levels.”
She says that once someone builds up a tolerance level to a drug – reducing the drugs taken over a few days can dramatically decrease it.
Kerry added: “People think they can continue what they were taking previously.
“They don’t have the tolerance and that’s leading to accidental overdose.”
She says naloxone is helping to save lives until addicts are ready to seek recovery.
Kerry added: “Not everyone is at a point they can stop. We need to empower these people to take some control back in their lives. They will decide when it’s time to stop and we help them along the way.
“My experience is that naloxone does not encourage increased drug use – no one wants to precipitate withdrawal symptoms.”
One man Kerry helped had lost two loved ones to drugs – and was determined to have a naloxone kit at home so he could help prevent another death.
Kerry said: “He found his partner dead in bed and he had lost a son to an overdose prior to having naloxone.
“Then when he had the kit in the house, he heard shouting for help outside as someone was overdosing.
“He administered naloxone and reversed the overdose.
“There was joy in this guy’s face when he was telling me this. He’d had two traumatic experiences and was so happy he managed to eventually save a life with naloxone.”
Kerry is non-judgmental in her work – she’s just determined to prevent deaths.
She said: “I don’t condone and I don’t condemn. The people I’m coming into contact with are the most stigmatised people in society but this is someone’s daughter or someone’s son or someone’s mum or dad. People are worth saving.
“Recovery might not happen next week for them or next month but recovery can happen and maybe that’s next year.” ● www.addaction.org.uk