Overdose reversal drug saves five lives during pilot project

It was a “no-brainer” that a medication that can reverse the effect of a potentially fatal drug overdose be made available nationally, a mother trained in its use has said.

Maureeen Penrose from Dublin was speaking at the publication of an evaluation report on the medication Naloxone, which has been piloted in four cities across the State.

Five young men’s lives were saved during the project.

Naloxone, which is recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for treatment in opioid overdoses, is injected and acts by reversing, within minutes, the effects of the overdose.

The pilot project was conducted by the HSE, between June 2015 and October 2015, in Dublin, Limerick, Cork and Waterford. Some 600 people including family members and front-line workers were trained in how to administer Naloxone.

Third highest rate of drug overdose

Ireland has the third highest rate of drug overdose in the world, estimated at 71 per million population aged 15-64. The highest rates are in Estonia (113 per million and Sweden (93 million).

The WHO recommends access to Naloxone be expanded to people likely to witness an overdose in their community, particularly friends, family and partners of people who use drugs, and social workers. It is generally only available from paramedics and hospitals.

Ms Penrose described the medication as a "gift".

“As a mother and a member of a family I have had a number of people involved in drug use, particularly heroin. It’s just a gift to know that if someone was to overdose in front of me that I would have this in my handbag. It’s just a no brainier really, it’s a life-saver, there’s no question.”

She said that she, and a number of others involved in the Family Support Network, an organisation which supports families of drug users, were invited to training with Denis O’Driscoll, chief pharmacist for HSE addiction services.

‘Simple technique’

“We practised on oranges,” she said. “It’s quite a simple technique. You get confident just by practising so I would feel confident.”

Melanie Froud, a homeless services worker with Crosscare, used the drug to bring someone back.

“The main thing was seeing someone who was unresponsive and fading in front of me, thinking they were gone, the regaining consciousness, breathing and moving.”

The report, written by external evaluators Ann Clarke and Anne Eustace, recommends Naloxone be rolled out nationally "in a measured strategic way" with "dedicated resources and personnel assigned...in each region."

Minister of State for Drugs and Social Inclusion, Catherine Byrne, publishing the report, said anything that saved lives should be invested in. She was "hurt" when people described drug-users as "scum".

As a TD for Dublin South-Central, she had lived all her life and area that had been ravaged by drugs and had seen the devastation caused to families.

“Sometimes people come from difficult backgrounds and from the day they are born life is very difficult for them. Unfortunately some get involved in drugs and criminality.”

If there were ways of supporting them to get their lives back on track, they should get that, she said.

She also said plans for a a supervised injecting room for dugs users in Dublin city was at “an advanced stage.”

“There can be nothing as demoralising as having to inject in public, up a laneway.”

Ms Byrne said a supervised room would be safer for injecting drug users and remove the distressing site of drug use and its associated paraphernalia, from the streets.