A PROJECT aimed at saving the lives of drug users is being trialled in East Yorkshire.

The pilot project, which runs until April, trains opiate users and their carers to administer the overdose-reversing drug Naloxone.

Naloxone is a medication usually administered by injection which rapidly reverses the effects of opiate-type drugs such as heroin, including the respiratory depression which can cause what are often referred to as “overdose” deaths.

A prescription is written for the opiate user at risk, but the drug can then be kept for them by other people who can legally use it in an emergency. The training workshops in Goole and Bridlington are being run by the East Riding Partnership (ERP), a formal partnership between the Humber NHS Foundation Trust and The Alcohol & Drug Service. The training is delivered by a group consisting of the ERP Open Access senior practitioner and specialist nurse, two members of the User Involvement Group, a member of pharmacy staff and a member of the British Red Cross.