Inside a training session for life-saving medicine
Naloxone can be used to treat opioid overdoses
We've been given exclusive access to join staff from a Wiltshire-based charity to learn more about how Naloxone can save lives.
It follows homelessness charity, Alabaré, responding to a Government consultation which could see powers to provide the medicine, which can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, extended to more organisations supporting at risk people.
According to the Office of National Statistics, more than 5,000 people died as a result of drug poisoning, with the majority being men.
Opioids can include drugs like heroin, fentanyl and morphine, and will block receptors in the body and cause pain relief and euphoria.
The training session we joined was delivered by Turning Point, Wiltshire's substance abuse support service, to around 10 members of the Alabaré team with various roles within the organisation supporting people who become homeless.
Jamie Coltman, who is Alabare's Complex Needs Service Lead, said the session was a "good refresher" and that information about harm reduction would be helpful to pass on to service users and people living in Alabaré's supported accommodation.
He added that a law change to allow them to provide the medication to people would be beneficial.
"As it stands, we are the only ones that can administer it. So if anybody was to come rushing in requiring this life-saving product, we cannot, give it to them. And if we're not in a position to administer it, we cannot, at the end of the day, save a life. And that needs to change," he said.
"I feel more confident now"
Colleagues Jack and Jas also took part in the training session and told us what they learnt from it.
"It was really helpful to have the practical aspect to do it like hands-on because there's only so much you can learn just by looking at things on a piece of paper on a screen, I really enjoyed that," Jack said.
Jas added: "It's broken down so clearly that administering and potentially saving someone's life is really easy once you know how to do it."
Both had a go at putting together the needle and syringe to administer Naloxone and said it is a straightforward process.
"I think it's easy. We've had every step broken down, but once you give it a go, it really is easy to use," Jas said.
Jack added that he feels much more confident about using it: "I definitely feel a lot more confident now than I did before. It's translating this into thinking about it in a real life aspect, which I thought today was really good."