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13 December 2005
SCOTTISH Drugs Forum’s pioneering overdose prevention training for drug users, their families, friends and drug workers is to be extended for a further two years following a £120,000 funding boost from the Scottish Executive to reduce drug-related deaths.
The Action Plan – announced today by Deputy Justice Minister Hugh Henry – will include:
Fear of police attending overdose scenes has already been identified by users as a major barrier to them calling for help more quickly, according to research already carried out by Scottish Drugs Forum.
A protocol between Scottish Police and the Scottish Ambulance Service – under which police are automatically called to every drugs overdose, non-fatal as well as fatal, will be reviewed annually each October to take account of practice elsewhere in the UK.
However, the Minister added: “But we still need to know why people are reluctant to call the emergency services.”
The Action Plan outlines work for the Executive and its partners in the police, in Drug Action Teams, in the prison service, in the NHS and throughout the voluntary sector.
The National Forum on Drug-related Deaths will consist of a range of representatives from organisations like the police, the ambulance service, homelessness services and family support. It will meet quarterly and report annually to Ministers – with its recommendations being disseminated widely to the drugs field.
The Association of Drug Action Teams in Scotland’s drug deaths working group - which earlier this year recommended the wider use of the opiate-reversal drug naloxone in drug death hotspots, heroin prescribing and safer injecting room for high risk homeless injectors - is also to be re-established.
Meanwhile, police forces are also to ask their local health partners about local prescribing practices and establish the position about measures to prevent over-prescribing in terms of leakage of prescribed drugs onto the market.
Earlier this year Scottish Drugs Forum highlighted trends among users for using diazepam and illicit heroin together which could increase a user's risk of overdosing on other, higher classification, drugs.
“I believe that our action plan provides the basis for a wide-ranging and effective programme to achieve a reduction in the number of drug-related deaths,” the Minister added.
David Liddell, Director of Scottish Drugs Forum and a member of the Scottish Advisory Committee on Drug Misuse (SACDM) short-life working party which published key recommendations on drugs deaths in August 2005, welcomed the Scottish Executive’s response to tackling drugs deaths.
However, he added: “It is crucially important that we maintain the momentum on this agenda and tackle the weaknesses in drug services which, unchecked, can play a part in overdoses occurring.
“The way frontline services operate must change and improve so that:
The Executive’s response is available on the Scottish Executive website at www.scotland.gov.uk/publications.
The Going Over DVD will be available from January. It will be distributed to prisoners on release, drug users through the first-aid training delivered by the Scottish Drugs Forum, drugs services and family support groups. Executive funding for the first-aid training project will be £59,640 in 2006 and £61,748 in 2007.
Drug-related deaths in Scotland increased from 317 in 2003 to 356 in 2004, an increase of 39 (12 per cent). There were 26 fewer deaths than in 2002.
12 December 2005
PRE-Christmas information campaigns to prevent drug-related deaths among users during the high-risk festive holiday period are to be mounted in Greater Glasgow and Argyll and Clyde, in conjunction with Scottish Drugs Forum.
The separate initiatives are to raise awareness among users of the heightened risks of overdose and death over the holiday period when many services are closed and users may be feeling more vulnerable.
Greater Glasgow includes Glasgow City’s 10,000-12,000 problem drug users, the highest of any local authority area in Scotland. Greater Glasgow has the highest number of drugs deaths each year in Scotland, which reached its highest recorded number of 120 in 2004.
Argyll and Clyde has one of the highest ratios of drug injectors in Scotland and had its highest number of drug deaths - 35 - in 2004.
The campaigns - which will cost £5800 in total and are being funded by Glasgow Addiction Service and Argyll and Clyde Alcohol and Drug Action Team - will focus on underlining how to avoid overdose and prevent fatalities through a package of information measures which include:
· Staff highlighting the seasonal risks and preventative measures to drug users and their families
· handing out key rings featuring diagrams of the recovery position and Know The Score telephone helpline number to users attending drug services or living in hostels for the homeless in Glasgow
· distributing Know The Score leaflets to users to help them spot the signs of overdose and give them tips on how to help when overdoses occur
· playing the Scottish Executive’s soon-to-be-launched DVD on overdose prevention in drug services’ waiting areas.
The move will coincide with the publication of the Scottish Executive’s much-anticipated Action Plan to Reduce Drug-Related Deaths, which will be unveiled by Deputy Justice Minister Hugh Henry - along with the overdose DVD - at Scottish Drugs Forum’s AGM on 13 December. There were 356 drug-related deaths in Scotland in 2004 and the target set in 2000 by the Scottish Executive to cut drug-deaths by 25 percent by 2005 has not been met.
Representatives of a number of statutory and voluntary drug services across two areas - which cover City of Glasgow, Rutherglen, Cambuslang, Paisley, Dumbarton and Clydebank - have been briefed on the local overdose prevention campaigns. Managers are being provided with information sheets which bullet point main issues such as seasonal risk factors and how to respond to an overdose.
A total of 15,000 keyrings have been ordered - 10,000 for Greater Glasgow and 5000 for Argyll and Clyde. The campaigns are expected to extend beyond the New Year.
Biba Brand, Scottish Drugs Forum’s West of Scotland Regional Manager, said: "It’s well recognised in the drugs sector that the festive holiday period brings a higher risk of death through overdose among problem drug users.
"Many services will have restricted opening hours and users will find themselves temporarily cut off from sources of treatment and support at what can be, for many people and not just drug users, a particularly difficult time.
"This can lead to depression, stress or isolation, which means they may be more tempted to take drugs.
"These campaigns are simple, inexpensive and are aimed at getting the kind of information which users - and their families and friends - need most, when they need it most."
Meanwhile, Scottish Drugs Forum’s pioneering Critical Incidents Training programme - which trains drug users, their families and "the trainers" in preventing overdoses - has surpassed its first year training targets.
SDF Critical Incidents Training Officer Graham Mackintosh has delivered 51 training sessions since he was appointed to the specially-created Scottish Executive-funded post in October 2004 - well over the initial year one targets of delivering 25 training programmes for drug using groups and eight for carers, families and friends.
The 27 training sessions targeting drug-using groups were delivered throughout the past year through:
Needle and Syringe Exchange services
Community Drug Rehabilitation services
Residential Drug Rehabilitation services
Homelessness and Hostel accommodation
Supported Accommodation services
Community Drug Teams
Drug Testing and Treatment Orders
Residential Drug Crisis Intervention Unit
Nine of the training events - targeting carers, family and friends - were mainly delivered within the Family Support Group setting but also within general community group settings.
Fifteen training sessions delivered to workers and professionals including Community Addiction staff, Drug Residential Rehabilitation staff, Supported Accommodation staff, Police Officers, Day Centre / Homelessness staff, Mental Health staff, Community Wardens and Youth Workers.
December 2005
The Scottish Executive's national Action Plan to tackle drug-related deaths - Taking Action to Reduce Scotland’s Drug-related Deaths - will be launched by Hugh Henry, Deputy Justice Minister, at this event, which is also SDF's AGM.
In August 2005, following the National Investigation into Drug Related Deaths in 2003 and the subsequent report and recommendations by the Scottish Advisory Committee on Drug Misuse’s Working Group on Drug-related Deaths, (opens in new browser window) the Scottish Executive announced its intention to produce an Action Plan aimed at reducing drug-related deaths in Scotland.
The Minister will unveil the final document at SDF's AGM and will also launch a DVD aimed at raising awareness among drug users, their families, friends and service providers about overdose risks and safe resuscitation.
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