Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #114253

Tinka Markham Piper, MPH, CSW¹, Nancy Worthington², David Rosenthal², Matt Curtis³, and Sandro Galea, MD, MPH¹. (1) Center for Urban Epidemiologic Studies, New York Academy of Medicine, 1216 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10029, 212-419-3584, kmarkham@nyam.org, (2) Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center, 25 Allen Street, New York, NY 10002, (3) Open Society Institute, 400 W. 59th Street, New York, NY 10019

Drug overdose is the ultimate complication of drug use; in NYC, over 900 people have died from drug overdose each of the last four years. Naloxone, an opiate antagonist, has for years been given by doctors and paramedics during emergency resuscitation after an opiate overdose. Although several programs in Europe and the United States have documented successful distribution of naloxone to drug users for personal use, or administration to other drug users, naloxone distribution is just beginning in NYC. The Overdose Prevention and Reversal Program was launched in June 2004 by the Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center (LESHRC) with the following goals: (i) to reduce overdose-related deaths through the distribution of naloxone hydrochloride to injection drug users in NYC; (ii) to build evidence of the effectiveness of take-home naloxone in harm reduction settings, and (iii) to create wider support for the inclusion of naloxone in harm reduction, methadone, and other public health programs. We will outline the processes that LESHRC has used to bring naloxone to NYC, including the development of program materials and curriculum, participant training methods for naloxone administration, data collection (baseline and follow-up questionnaires) and evaluation components of the study (post-training assessment and focus groups). We will also review the challenges (e.g., naloxone prescribing, recruiting medical professionals on the project, securing citywide support for the project), lessons learned (recruitment and training strategies, evaluation methods), and next steps (expanding overdose prevention to all needle exchange programs in NYC) for naloxone distribution in NYC.

Learning Objectives:

• 1. Describe trends in drug overdose in NYC and the potential role of naloxone in reducing fatal opiate drug overdose
• 2. Discuss the development, implementation and evaluation of the Overdose Prevention and Reversal Program at the Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center (LESHRC) in New York City
• 3. Identify programmatic lessons learned for naloxone distribution in NYC

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.