Implementation Guide - Practitioners

The following guidance is based on the experience and learning from the Scottish National Naloxone Programme.

Identify lead – this person will be part of the staff team and responsible for coordinating the programme inside the prison by ensuring barriers are addressed, data is being collected and that the programme is being delivered as intended.
Identify lead for peer involvement – this will be a different person from the overall lead. It should be someone who is already involved in delivering programmes to prisoners and has a good reputation and relationship with prisoners. In Scotland, this was always an officer from the Scottish Prison Service rather than the health service.
Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) – SOPs should be in place detailing all of the operational aspects of the programme such as who will deliver training, how it will be recorded, where the naloxone will be stored and responsibilities for ensuring it is provided on release.
Paperwork – should be in place for recording training and monitoring data.
Materials – leaflets, information cards and posters should be circulated around the prison and also provided to people following training. Consideration should also be given to the provision of certificates to those who complete the training.
Devise a staff training plan – identify key staff to be trained as trainers and coordinate attendance for training.
Attend staff training – all staff identified must attend the ‘training for trainers’ course delivered by the master trainer(s) before training people likely to witness an overdose. Following this, staff should be in a position to start training people straight away while the knowledge is fresh.
Identify prisoners for roles as peer educators – tips and guidance for this are provided in the section in chapter 10.
Train peer educators – lead for peer involvement should arrange training for peers based on the programme that has been developed in advance.
Deliver training – this should be opportunistic, brief and delivered in a variety of settings. It should be normalised and discussed at any opportunity. It may also be reasonable to have some small group sessions but this should not be the main source of training.

Published: 2021

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