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Overdose Training for families

Introduction:  "Overdose prevention training programs exist to help IDUs prevent and respond more effectively to overdose in their community, but not everyone participates." Although many medical providers and police officers are trained in Naloxone, families should also be trained. Overdose effects some individuals directly others more indirectly and the society at large. Overdose deaths can be prevented by all of us. Conversations about about overdose prevention and reversal with friends and loved-ones can build trust, break down stigma, and prevent death(s).

Causes of Overdose
Drug overdose involving prescription opioid medications and heroin is a leading cause of drug poisoning deaths in the United States.

What Dose an Overdose Look Like
Nearly all drug overdose deaths involve more than one substance(s), including alcohol. Opioids repress the urge to breath, leading respiratory depression and death. Opioid overdoses occur in a continuum of three stages: Heavy/uncontrollable nodding, Overdose, and Fatal overdose. Although opioid overdoses happens over course of 1-3 hours. Stereotype "needle in the arm" death only occurs in about 15% of overdose deaths. The key is that there is time to respond to help prevent an overdose.

People Who are Mostly at Risk
Abstinence decreases tolerance; however increases overdose risk. People who are recently released from the correctional facilities, hospitals, and drug treatment programs are at greater risk of an overdose. If family members of a opioid users is well trained in Naloxone overdoses of the recent released correctional population of users or community users the numbers of overdoses would decrease. Background Incarceration is common among people who inject drugs. Prior research has shown that incarceration is a marker of elevated risk for opioid overdose, suggesting that the criminal justice system may be an important, under-utilized venue for implementing overdose prevention strategies. To better understand the feasibility and acceptability of such strategies, we evaluated the utilization of naloxone-based overdose prevention training among people who inject drugs with and without a history of incarceration.

Family
Results from uncontrolled evaluations suggest that training increases participants’ knowledge and confidence in overdose management. Family members of heroin users have been generally overlooked by overdose prevention programmers. Because naloxone administration requires the use of a needle and syringe, this is an obvious potential barrier to family members’ involvement. In a survey of family members and carers of illicit drug users, 21% had already witnessed an overdose, but only 26% had received prior information or guidance on overdose management [35], with 88% expressing a desire for training, although as expected there were high levels of concern about the procedures that participants thought would be involved in overdose management.

REFERENCES:

Barocas, J. A., Baker, L., Hull, S. J., Stokes, S., & Westergaard, R. P. (2015). High uptake of naloxone-based overdose prevention training among previously incarcerated syringe-exchange program participants.

Drug & Alcohol Dependence, 154283-286. doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2015.06.023