Take-Home Naloxone Kit Distribution: A Pilot Project Involving People Who Use Drugs and Who Are Newly Released from a Correctional Facility

Abstract

Due to a recent increase in opioid overdoses in Canada, new harm reduction strategies are emerging. One of these strategies is take-home naloxone (THN) kits for individuals who use drugs being released from correctional facilities. Given the efficacy of naloxone for overdose reversal, the distribution of this medication to drug users upon release from incarceration has the potential for an impact on the incidence of drug-related death among this population. This group is at risk of overdose post-release due to lowered opioid tolerance and drugs of unknown strength. In this article, we report on the findings of a THN kit program for newly released inmates. This pilot project embodied a strong collaborative spirit between a provincial corrections facility and a not-for-profit harm reduction agency. Due to the success of this pilot project, this program was rolled out provincially in correctional centres across Alberta, overseen by the provincial health authority.

Creating an 11-year longitudinal substance use harm cohort from linked health and census data to analyze social drivers of health

“…This makes the cohort population younger and healthier than the Canadian population. Substance use harm events occurring in correctional settings and following release are well documented and particularly prevalent immediately following release, [36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45] when many individuals are without an address or are residing in a group home so are not likely to be included with CanCHEC data. A recent scoping review also suggests that prescription misuse is a growing concern among older adults in Canada, 46 suggesting that harm events in nursing homes may also be missed in the CanCHEC data.…”