Non-government organisations (NGOs) and private services (including sole traders) in NSW play a key role in improving community access to naloxone for people at risk of experiencing or witnessing an opioid overdose.
Participating services can obtain naloxone at no cost and supply it to people who need it for free and without a prescription.
This webpage outlines how health and welfare organisations in NSW can join and implement the Take Home Naloxone program.
The Take Home Naloxone non-government and private services procedures provide instructions for supplying take home naloxone in participating services.
A legal authority allows certain types of workers in participating services to supply naloxone, provided they successfully complete worker training and assessment, and supply naloxone in compliance with the Procedures.
To join the program, private or non-government health or welfare services need to sign a letter of agreement with NSW Health. The agreement requires participating services to comply with the Procedures for supplying naloxone.
To become a participating service that supplies naloxone, an organisation must:
Non-government and private services can apply to join the program by submitting an Expression of Interest (EOI). FAQs are available to help explain the program and may be useful when seeking support from senior management to participate in the Take Home Naloxone program.
To become a participating service:
To get credentialed, non-government and private service workers need to complete the online worker training and assessment. The training ensures workers have the knowledge and skills to deliver a take home naloxone brief intervention in accordance with the Procedures.
Online training is available for workers from participating services. This site is password protected and can be accessed only by workers from participating services that have signed a letter of agreement with NSW Health. Once the letter has been signed. The password will be provided to the Responsible Person for Take Home Naloxone at that workplace.
Training is free for workers in each participating service. The NSW Ministry of Health is unable to fund any expenses associated with the training.
The Take Home Naloxone ordering instructions explains how to order naloxone medicines. Your service must become a participating service to use this ordering process.
Specific forms and documents need to be used when delivering Take Home Naloxone interventions. Instructions on how to use these documents are described in the Take Home Naloxone non-government and private services procedures:
Consumer Information Sheets can be ordered for free via Your Room.
[back to top]
Under the Australian Government's National Take Home Naloxone Program,the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) fully subsidises the cost of naloxone medicines supplied in participating community pharmacies by reimbursing suppliers after naloxone has been dispensed.
In NSW, participating public services and non-government health and welfare services can also supply PBS-subsidised naloxone under the NSW Take Home Naloxone program. NSW Health covers the initial cost of ordering naloxone medicines for participating private and non-government services.
To obtain PBS subsidised naloxone, participating services must register with the online PPA portalas an ‘Authorised Alternative Supplier’ (AAS) and regularly report data about the naloxone they supply. The PPA Portal User Guide for Authorised Alternative Suppliers outlines how participating services register and report supply data.
The data that needs to be reported is collected on the Take Home Naloxone Intervention Form.
If a client does not give consent, only limited information is reported into the PPA portal, including:
For help using the PPA Portal:Phone: 1800 951 285 (9am to 8pm AEST Monday to Friday)Email: support@ppaonline.com.au
Direct all enquiries to moh-naloxone@health.nsw.gov.au
