About the project
Opioids account for most drug overdose deaths. Naloxone is an opioid antagonist which is a medication that works to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose by restoring normal breathing. The take-home naloxone program trains and equips non-medical members of the community to recognize and respond to an overdose, using naloxone before the ambulance arrives.
Background
This project consists of the implementation of a take-home naloxone program throughout the country and an evaluation of the impact of the intervention. The program began in 2014 and is ongoing as part of the National Overdose Prevention Strategy.
Staff working in municipal facilities that serve people who use drugs are trained to distribute naloxone. Naloxone is primarily distributed via low-threshold facilities, but is also available at treatment centers, shelters, and prisons. Other groups who are in contact with people at risk of overdosing have also been trained in the use of naloxone (family support organizations, police, security staff, and others). The program is open to essentially anyone who is interested in learning how to respond.
Take-home naloxone is currently distributed in over 100 facilities, and is available without an individual prescription at no cost to the client. Since 2014 over 20,000 naloxone nasal sprays have been distributed.
At present, the program is expanding training locations and information availability to reach a broader group of people at risk of overdosing. This includes a staff e-learning course and videos to use during client training.
Questionnaire data is collected upon initial and refill visits for people receiving a naloxone training. The data is used to describe who is being trained to use naloxone, how often it has been used for an overdose, and the outcome following its use.
National registry data will be used to map study participants’ mortality over time.
Financing
The Norwegian Directorate of Health provides funding for this project.
Cooperation
This project is a collaboration between SERAF and multiple municipalities throughout the country.
Publications
- A rapid assessment of take-home naloxone provision during COVID-19 in Europe
- Who is using take-home naloxone? An examination of supersavers
- Staff preferences towards electronic data collection from a national take-home naloxone program: a cross-sectional study | Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy
- Risks and overdose responses: Participant characteristics from the first seven years of a national take-home naloxone program
- Rethinking ‘carriage’ of take-home naloxone
- Naloxone distribution and possession following a large‐scale naloxone programme
- Overdose prevention training with naloxone distribution in a prison in Oslo, Norway: a preliminary study
- Rapid widespread distribution of intranasal naloxone for overdose prevention
- The use of public health infrastructure probably the best strategy for national and large‐scale naloxone distribution programmes
- Utilizing a train-the-trainer model for multi-site naloxone distribution programs
- Circumstances surrounding non‐fatal opioid overdoses attended by ambulance services
- Radical red tape reduction by government supported nasal naloxone: the Norwegian pilot project is innovative, safe and an important contribution to further development and dissemination of take‐home naloxone