NALOXONE CAHMA's Opioid Overdose Prevention and Management Program

Take-Home Naloxone provision through CAHMA

CAHMA continues to provide take-home naloxone to ACT opioid users and their friends and families, and anyone else who believes that they may offer assistance if they should witness an opioid overdose.

To arrange to have naloxone delivered to you, and brief Intervention training provided, please call 02 6253 3643 Mon-Fri between 11AM and 4PM to arrange delivery and training, to your home or another location at your request, within 24 hours. The staff member delivering the naloxone will provide a brief 10-minute training course in how to respond to opioid overdose during the Covid-19 pandemic.

All naloxone provided by CAHMA is intranasal formulation.

Naloxone provided is free to all participants

CAHMA train staff at other AOD services in Canberra to provide Naloxone. Ring CAHMA to have our Naloxone Co-ordinator do training via teleconference.

Brief intervention training and Take-Home Naloxone is still available at Directions Needle and Syringe programs (NSP's) in Civic and Phillip (and at DIRECTIONS main office) as well as the Hepatitis ACT NSP in Turner.

Overdose Management during Covid-19

Clients who have previously been trained in overdose management through CAHMA’s take-home naloxone program, or people who have attended certified first aid training, will be familiar with the importance of airway maintenance and rescue breathing when administering first aid to an opioid overdose patient.
However, the Resuscitation Council of Australia are recommending that first responders SHOULD NOT either attempt to clear the patient’s airway manually or to provide rescue breathing (either with or without a CPR mask). This recommendation is in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the heightened risk of viral transmission through close contact. First responders who use intranasal naloxone to reverse an overdose should be aware of the risk that the patient may cough or sneeze as the naloxone takes effect. First responders should practice physical distancing of at least 2 metres as much as possible during the administration of first aid.

Take-Home Naloxone

CAHMA is proud to have inaugurated the first Peer Administered Naloxone Program in Australia. The program, which started running in the early months of 2012, was developed by CAHMA and the Implementing Expanded Naloxone Availability in the ACT (IENAACT) committee. The program provides training in the skills necessary to administer Naloxone, as well as supplying the means and materials (i.e. the Naloxone). CAHMA is confident that this will bring about significant improvements in the way overdoses are managed and, through this, an increase in the number of people surviving potentially fatal opioid overdoses.

The program has the support of a wide range of stakeholders, including the Pharmaqcy Guild, the ACT Division of General Practice, numerous individual General Practitioners, the ACT Ambulance Service, thousands of drug users throughout Australia as well as their families, friends and various service providers. There is also support from the ACT Chief Minister and numerous other ACT Government Ministers. The program also has wide support from numerous national bodies including the Australian National Council on Drugs (ANCD), which is the primary advisory body to the Australian Government.