Opioid overdose blocker can be given by charity

Support project now authorised to provide medication to fight drug effects

A Perth housing support project has become one of the first non-addiction services in the country authorised to provide drugs which could prevent fatal opioid overdoses.

Turning Point Scotland’s Perth and Kinross Floating Housing Support service can now offer training to people at risk of witnessing an overdose and supply them with naloxone.

The medication is virtually side-effect free when taken to combat opioids such as heroin and temporarily reverses the deadly effects of an overdose.

Services which don’t specialise in addiction have only recently been permitted to provide it to people who may be likely to witness an opioid overdose, as part of measures to reduce the spread of Covid-19.

The Perth scheme, which supports adults with varying needs within their own homes, is one of the first to take that step. Employees are now authorised to supply the overdose stopper.

Head of alcohol and other drug services for Turning Point Scotland Patricia Tracey said the measure would help to reduce the number of drug deaths locally.

She said: “Since the initial pilot stages and the roll-out of the National Naloxone Programme in 2011, Turning Point Scotland has strongly supported the use of naloxone and now welcomes its extended provision. Care services like our Perth and Kinross Floating Housing Support service can now use it to save lives.”

Turning Point has provided support to people in Scotland with substance misuse issues, mental health problems and learning difficulties since 1999.

The Shore Road-based Perth Floating Housing Support Service was created in 2019. Staff cover all of Perthshire and help service users to develop the skills required to independently keep their tenancies.

Scotland was the first country in the world to introduce a national naloxone programme and the Scottish Government has invested £1 million in it between 2011-2016. More than 46,000 potentially lifesaving take-home kits have been supplied across the country.

Meanwhile, a new report has shown the number of clean needles given to drug addicts has dropped by 21% in less than a decade.

In 2019-20, according to data released by Public Health Scotland on injecting equipment provision (IEP), 3,122,599 needles were handed out across 277 outlets. In 2011-12 the number was 3,945,982, some 21% higher than the most recent figure.

The methods of distribution of needles and syringes shifted slightly during the same period, with more coming from pharmacy than agency settings.

Picture: Kim Cessford. Turning Point’s headquarters in Perth.