LETTER: Service aims to help stop drug overdose deaths

Staffordshire’s drug and alcohol service is helping to raise awareness of how you can help in the event of witnessing an overdose.

We want everyone to understand that overdose deaths are preventable.

Across the world, IOAD aims to improve understanding of overdose and to encourage changes that help to reduce the harms associated with drug use.

People are at most risk of overdose when they may have had a break from using drugs for any reason. Also the variety in purity of street drugs can pose an overdose risk.

The Staffordshire Treatment and Recovery Service is reminding people who seek support to ask about getting a naloxone kit so they can safely keep it on hand.

Naloxone is the emergency antidote for overdoses caused by heroin and other opioids. When injected into someone experiencing the effects of opioid overdose, it temporarily reverses the overdose effect, helping the person to revive. Staff in the hubs will show people who want to take a kit, how to use and store it.

Naloxone is readily available for free from the Staffordshire Treatment and Recovery Service. We want everyone to carry a naloxone kit because naloxone saves lives.

The safest choice is not to use drugs at all, but if you do use drugs, do not use alone - if you use alone then you’re not able to use naloxone. Be sure of the nature of the drugs you’re using and if you’re not sure of the quality take small dose, wait and gauge your reaction.

The last published statistics show there were 4,359 drug related deaths in England and Wales in 2018. This is the highest number of deaths since records began in 1993. Since 2012, rates of drug-related poisonings have generally been on an upward trend.

If you would like to speak to someone in confidence about your own or someone else’s drug or alcohol use, then contact the Staffordshire Treatment and Recovery Service by visiting staffstreatmentandrecovery.co.uk/ to discover your local service telephone number.

Emily Todd, Staffordshire Treatment and Recovery Service

Send us your letters for publication:

Email us at letters@expressandstar.co.uk or write to: Letters, Express & Star, 51-53 Queen Street, Wolverhampton WV1 1ES. Letters MUST include the writer’s name, address and telephone number. Letters will only be published anonymously in exceptional circumstances. The editor reserves the right to condense or amend letters.