Access saves lives: Opioid overdose treatment
16 September 2019
This brief provides an overview of opioid overdose prevention and treatment approaches as well as barriers to accessing treatment.
Key points in the brief include:
- Availability and accessibility of Naloxone
- Opioid overdose prevention and treatment approaches
- Harm reduction interventions
- Take-home Naloxone (THN)
- Drug Consumption Rooms (DCRS)
- Heroin-Assisted Treatment (HAT)
- Potential future approaches to opioid overdose prevention and treatment
- Technological approaches to prevent or respond to an opioid overdose
- Opioid dispensing vending machines
- Barriers to accessing opioid overdose treatment and opportunities to overcome them
- Medicalisation of harm reduction programmes
- Good practice models of Naloxone access
- Recommendations
- For legislators, policy makers and advocates
- For healthcare providers
- For networks/groups of people most affected by opioid use
- For donors and development agencies.
This is the third publication in the IAS Policy Brief Series on inclusive care services and policies for people who use drugs.