Notes for directors of public health, commissioners, service providers and needle and syringe programmes reflecting presentations and discussion from the seventh meeting of the National Intelligence Network on the health harms associated with drug use, held in London on 4 June 2015 (Public Health England)
Bibliography: Interventions – Harm Reduction
Managing drug users’ high suicide risk
A new NDARC resource assists co-ordinated approach
Naloxone – preliminary advice from the working group updating Drug Misuse and Dependence: UK Guidelines on Clinical Management
The working group updating the 2007 national clinical guidelines on drug treatment has published some preliminary advice on naloxone before addressing its supply and use more fully in the published update next year. The advice covers naloxone dosing in overdose situations, take-home naloxone products that can be supplied and training that should be provided, now and following legislation to make naloxone more widely available from October 2015 onwards (Public Health England)
WHO calls for urgent action to curb hepatitis
WHO is alerting people to the risks of contracting hepatitis from unsafe blood, unsafe injections, and sharing drug-injection equipment
Draft Council conclusions on the implementation of the EU Action Plan on Drugs 2013-2016
Regarding minimum quality standards in drug demand reduction in the European Union
Improving access to, and completion of, hepatitis C treatment
This briefing provides an overview of the key issues that local providers and commissioners of drug and hepatitis treatment should consider (PHE)
Injecting risk practices and Hepatitis C
Harm minimisation interventions and public health messages need to target this behaviour to reduce the risk of HCV infection (NDARC)
People who inject drugs: HIV and viral hepatitis monitoring
Data tables and commentary for the unlinked anonymous monitoring survey of people who inject drugs, data for 2004 to 2014 (Public Health England)
Alcohol’s Harm to Others
A report for the Institute of Alcohol Studies produced by the University of Sheffield School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR)
New guidelines to support people bereaved by alcohol or drugs
A set of practice guidelines aimed at providing meaningful support to people who have lost a relative or friend to alcohol or drugs (university of Bath)
Preliminary results of the IDHDP global naloxone survey
Slideshare of conference presentation (IDHDP)
Opioid Overdose Prevention Programs Providing Naloxone to Laypersons — United States, 2014
Organizations providing naloxone kits to laypersons receive many reports of overdose reversals and can reach large numbers of potential overdose bystanders (CDC)
Methadone Dose-capping Still Continues in Practice, If Not in Policy
Dose-capping – limiting the amount of methadone a patient can take on a daily basis – was ruled “contrary to the current state of the medical literature and the principle of individualized treatment” in 2007 by SAMHSA in the Federal Guidelines for Opioid Treatment. So it’s surprising that it still goes on (ATF)
20 year report on Needle and Syringe Program attendees in Australia
The report presents national and jurisdictional data from the Australian Needle and Syringe Program Survey from 1995 to 2014. Around two thirds of Australia’s primary Needle and Syringe Program services participate in the survey and program attendees have participated on more than 45,000 occasions (The Kirby Institute, UNSW Australia)
Position paper on the provision of medically supervised injecting centres in Dublin
ANA Liffey Drug Project
Physician Waivers to Prescribe Buprenorphine Increase Potential Access to Effective Treatment Options to Address Opioid Overdose Crisis
Published in the June issue of the journal Health Affairs, the study shows that the increased number and geographic distribution of physicians obtaining waivers to prescribe buprenorphine has widened potential access to effective treatment for those with addiction to heroin or prescription painkillers (RAND)
The misuse of benzodiazepines among high-risk opioid users in Europe
As we describe below, available evidence shows that the misuse of benzodiazepines contributes to morbidity and mortality among high-risk opioid users (EMCDDA)
Laws prohibiting peer distribution of injecting equipment in Australia
A critical analysis of their effects (Drug Policy)
Drug consumption rooms
Part of the Perspectives on Drugs (PODs) series, launched as part of the European Drug Report package, these designed-for-the-web interactive analyses provide deeper insights into a selection of important issues (EMCDDA)
Drug consumption rooms
Part of the Perspectives on Drugs (PODs) series, launched as part of the European Drug Report package, these designed-for-the-web interactive analyses provide deeper insights into a selection of important issues (EMCDDA)
