Non-government organisations and private services (including sole traders) can play a key role in improving community access to take home naloxone across NSW.
The Take Home Naloxone non-government and private services procedures provide instructions for supplying take home naloxone in participating services that are not otherwise enabled to supply this medication. Participating services can obtain naloxone at no cost and supply it to people at risk of experiencing or witnessing an opioid overdose for free and without a prescription.
Agencies need to sign a Letter of Agreement with the NSW Ministry of Health in order to participate in the Take Home Naloxone program. The agreement requires participating services to comply with the Procedures for supplying naloxone.
A Legal authority enables certain types of workers to supply naloxone, provided they successfully complete worker training and credentialing, and supply naloxone in compliance with the Procedures.
People who use illicit drugs other than opioids should consider carrying naloxone as they may still be at risk of opioid overdose. Strong opioids such as fentanyl, acetylfentanyl, and nitazenes have recently been found in methamphetamine, cocaine, ketamine, counterfeit benzodiazepines and heroin.
Teams providing THN interventions should consider people who use illicit drugs other than opioids, as eligible to receive a THN intervention, providing they satisfy other eligibility criteria. People who may witness an opioid overdose (for example family, friends or carers of someone at risk of opioid overdose) are also eligible to receive a THN intervention.
Public Drug Warnings and Clinical Safety Alerts regarding dangerous drugs circulating in NSW are published by NSW Health when there is a significant and proven risk of harm in the drug supply. It's important to remember that illicit drugs containing strong opioids may circulate in NSW, even if no specific alert has been issued about them.
To get credentialed, non-government and private service workers need to complete the worker training and assessments to demonstrate satisfactory knowledge and skills to deliver a take home naloxone brief intervention in accordance with the Procedures. The Procedures are relevant to the supply of naloxone to clients for later use. These Procedures do not apply to health/welfare workers directly administering naloxone and other emergency procedures in response to a suspected patient overdose in a health/welfare service setting.
Take home naloxone worker training is funded by the NSW Ministry of Health and is delivered remotely by a training provider approved by NSW Health. MSIC staff should access online training through Uniting’s learning platform.
Training is free for up to eight workers in each participating service. The NSW Ministry of Health is unable to fund expenses or staff relief costs associated with the training.
Non-government and private services are invited to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) to supply take home naloxone through this program.
The FAQs summarise the program and may be useful when seeking senior management support to participate in the Take Home Naloxone program.
To become a participating service:
The NSW Ministry of Health will review EOI forms and respond to eligible organisations with a Letter of Agreement to sign.
The training provider will contact participating services to schedule a remote training session for eligible workers.
When delivering Take Home Naloxone interventions, health and welfare workers in participating services need to use specific forms and documents. The Take Home Naloxone non-government and private services procedures provide instruction about the use of these documents:
Consumer Information Sheets can be ordered for free using the naloxone factsheet order form.
The Take Home Naloxone ordering instructions outlines how to order naloxone medicines. Please note that your service must become a participating service before you can use this ordering process.
Each quarter, participating services must report on the implementation of the NSW Take Home Naloxone Program using the Take Home Naloxone quarterly reporting template.
Participating services must submit quarterly reports by email to moh-naloxone@health.nsw.gov.au
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The Australian Government's National Take Home Naloxone Program subsidises the cost of naloxone medicines supplied across Australia through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. In early 2022, the Australian Government committed $4.9 million ongoing annual funding for this program. The program replaces a pilot that previously operated in NSW, SA and WA.
In NSW, the National Take Home Naloxone Program operates in participating community pharmaciesand in public health, private and non-government services participating in the NSW Take Home Naloxone Program.
To comply with the requirements of the Australian Government Program, private and non-government services participating in the NSW Take Home Naloxone program must register with the online PPA portaland submit data regularly about the naloxone they supply.
The data that needs to be reported is recorded on the Take Home Naloxone Intervention Form, by credentialed workers delivering take home naloxone interventions to clients.
When the participant consent check box is left unticked, the only data items that need to be entered into the PPA portal are:
The PPA portal defines participating non-government organisation and private services as Authorised Alternative Suppliers. The PPA Portal User Guide for Authorised Alternative Suppliers provides step by step instructions for participating services to register and submit supply data.
Contact the PPA Support Centre 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
