Peer-to-Peer Naloxone Programme in Sandwell
Friday 19 November 2021 marked the launch of a new Peer-to-Peer Naloxone Programme in Sandwell in the West Midlands in the UK.
The launch event was a great success. The target was to recruit 15 trainees with the hope that 10 would graduate the programme. 22 peers were engaged through a 3–hour drop-in session on Friday. 19 of these were invited to join this week’s intensive P2PN training.
The group also reflected the diversity of Sandwell with 8 women and 4 peers with South Asian backgrounds and peer from Portugal and Lithuania.
Coact are partnering with Cranstoun in Sandwell to deliver a demonstration project using the EuroNPUD Peer-to-Peer Technical Briefing and the Naloxone Saves Lives training course. Coact’s involvement reflects the private nature of the contract with Cranstoun hiring Mat Southwell outside his half-time work for EuroNPUD.
EuroNPUD’s involvement reflects the agreement to jointly showcase this project across EuroNPUD and Cranstoun’s social media platforms. This will boost the advocacy and capacity building potential of this partnership project. Cranstoun have agreed that the range of supporting materials developed during this project will be made available on the EuroNPUD website as an open-source toolkit. This means others will be able to access the protocols, role descriptions and quality standards developed to support the roll out of P2PN in Sandwell
A key objective for Coact is to build the capacity of the Sandwell Cranstoun team to supervise and support the team of Peer Harm Reduction Volunteers. Mat will motivate and train the team of Peer Harm Reduction Volunteers while sharing the training and developpment model with the Cranstoun team. In the longer term it is intended that people from Cranstoun’s existing volunteer programme will deliver the future roll out of P2PN avoiding the cost of external technical support. Simon Wollaston Harm Reduction Project Lead at Cranstoun Sandwell: “This is an exciting project to be involved in. We are empowering individuals to make positive impacts with their peers in Sandwell, while also demonstrating Cranstoun’s commitment to leading the field in terms of innovative approaches while working with partners who share our values.”
Ria is one of Sandwell’s existing team responsible for service user involvement. Ria helped mobilise peers to attend the drop-in session on Friday and supported the distribution of Naloxone to the peers. Ria noted that “this is so exciting and the fact that peers will be delivering naloxone training in their own communities will make a tremendous difference and increase access to the lifesaving drug naloxone”
19 peers left the programme on Friday trained and equipped to save lives with the opioid overdose reversal drug Naloxone. Those who join the peer training programme will now learn to train and equip others to become Sandwell’s life savers.
