Opening of the new Needle Exchange

Opening of the new Needle Exchange

Masterton

22 June 2015

Kate Kerrisk

Member of the Drugs Health and Development Project Drust Board

Hello everyone, and welcome. I’d like to thank you all, on behalf of the board, for coming along today to support the important work that we do here, at Drugs Project. I would particularly like to thank you Mr Dunne for taking time from your busy schedule, to be here with us today, celebrating the opening of our new premises.

I am very excited about this new branch and feel very privileged to have been invited to speak today. I am a former injecting drug user. I was born and raised in Masterton, and this town became my stomping ground. I was using drugs heavily in this town around 12 years ago, and had there been a needle exchange at that time, I would have been one of its clients.

I would like to take some of this time to bring up a topic dear to my heart, and that is overdose prevention.

I could just as easily NOT be here today talking to you all... And I assure you it was more good luck than good management that I never overdosed. I did witness an overdose – which thankfully was not fatal, but I know of many who were not so lucky.

Too many overdose-related deaths are happening in NZ annually. The death rate has remained steady for some time, at around 37 deaths per year, but it is acknowledged that figure suffers from considerable underreporting. The real number is higher.

Naloxone is a lifesaving drug. If administered in time it can reverse an opiate overdose. It is a very safe drug with no abuse potential. The World Health Organisation classifies naloxone as an essential medicine.

Due to the illegal status of illicit drug use, panic and avoidance of calling an ambulance, in overdose situations are common. Drug drug users often attempt other methods to combat the overdose, such as hitting the victim, cold showers, and walking the unconscious victim around - sometimes the person pulls through, and sometimes they die.

The best way to reduce the number of fatal overdoses is the use of Naloxone by lay persons, as part of a comprehensive overdose response.

The rationale behind giving lay-persons take home Naloxone is that people who inject drugs commonly experience overdoses, which are often witnessed by people who can respond. Peers, family members and others are keen and able to help. If given the right tools and education they can successfully respond to assist in the management of overdoses.

Naloxone use, by laypersons that have had training, is cost effective and safe.

Take home Naloxone kits will save lives – by effectively buying the victim some time while waiting for the ambulance to arrive.

Current research and professional opinions both nationally and internationally, indicate the merit of a public health programme in NZ to address overdose fatalities - and Naloxone provision is part of that.

We believe it’s a “No brainer” to provide naloxone as part of a needle exchange programme package, as part of a comprehensive service model.

We are best placed to do this, as we are already in touch with injecting drug users, who trust us to treat them with empathy and understanding. Our peer service model makes it easy for us to relate to our client base. Providing naloxone is a chance to scale up our health services, as it’s an incentive to get more people engaging and having those health and treatment conversations.

I’ve said what I wanted to say, so thank you all for listening.

ENDS

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