Reducing Drug-Related Deaths

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Drug-related deaths in Scotland

Scottish Drugs Forum continues to make a significant contribution towards achieving national focus on tackling drug-related deaths through:

  • Promoting a more holistic view of the range of contributory issues related to drug-related death
  • Offering essential training to all health boards areas across Scotland. This includes Staying Alive in Scotland (Preventing Drug-related deaths), Critical Incident (overdose prevention and emergency intervention) and Take-Home Naloxone (THN) emergency intervention training.
  • Supporting Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs), NHS/statutory services and Third Sector organisations in their work to reduce Drug Related-Deaths by facilitating the sharing of good practice from both within Scotland and internationally.
  • Providing guidance on holistic approaches to service delivery that indirectly impact on reducing drug related deaths and developing related resources.
  • Contributing to the development of local frameworks to enable effective delivery of the overdose prevention (Critical Incidents) and emergency response (Critical Incidents and Take-Home Naloxone) training.
  • Participating in national work overseeing implementation and the development of innovative approaches for the Take-Home Naloxone programme such as training User Involvement volunteers in overdose prevention and naloxone administration techniques.
  • Hosting regular information-sharing and best practice events.
  • Ground-breaking research on issues facing high-risk Older Drug Users.
  • Promoting emergency responses to potential fatal outbreaks of infection among drug users.
  • SDF’s innovative Naloxone Peer Educator Initiative supports the development of local networks of peer volunteers to widen the reach of the lifesaving Take-Home Naloxone Overdose Intervention training.