Overdose prevention after hospital discharge – broadening take-home naloxone provision

Citation

Burton G (2021) Overdose prevention after hospital discharge – broadening take-home naloxone provision. Scottish Drug Deaths Taskforce [Blog post] 10.05.2021. https://drugdeathstaskforce.scot/our-work/targeted-distribution-of-naloxone/overdose-prevention-after-hospital-discharge-broadening-take-home-naloxone-provision/

Abstract
First paragraph: One of my primary motivations for beginning a PhD in substance use and addiction were the encounters I had as a junior doctor with patients who were experiencing these. As a clinician, I felt increasingly frustrated that I was not able to take a broader view of how we could help people, curtailed by the need to focus on the health issue they were presenting with, time and job constraints, rather than having the freedom to more fully explore or help to address underlying issues that were exacerbating or causing harm. At that time, there were really no widely promoted structures or policies in place for providing meaningful, practical harm reduction interventions in hospital settings. There was very little general awareness of the need for harm reduction or overdose education in these settings, and no availability of take-home naloxone. The need for improvement here is being recognised, with the most recent RCPE policy report, which highlights the increasing role that the medical community must play in addressing “problems related to drug and alcohol dependency”. Thus, there is the recognition that change here is needed, particularly in light of the current number of drug-related deaths being experienced in Scotland.