Naloxone services in community pharmacies
Community pharmacies play a vital role in our work supporting people who use drugs. Take a look at our life-saving resources for pharmacies.
We need your help to save lives
We want to reach as many people who use drugs as possible with our offer of support, but we can’t do it alone.
Our communities across the country rely on pharmacies. You can help us reach the many people who don’t engage with drug and alcohol services, while providing more touchpoints for support during your evening and weekend opening hours.
Through extended naloxone provision and important needle and syringe programmes (NSPs), we’re determined to work together to reduce the risk and increasing rate of drug-related deaths.
What we can support pharmacies to deliver
There are two main programmes our community pharmacies can get involved with to help us reduce drug-related deaths:
- Take-home Naloxone (THN) programme: this is where pharmacies provide naloxone (nasal and injectable) to people who use drugs who may be at risk of, or likely to witness, an opioid overdose.
- Emergency Naloxone Administration Programme (ENAP): this is where pharmacies hold a stock of nasal naloxone on-site (supplied to pharmacy staff trained by Waythrough) to use in the case of an emergency.
If you have any questions or just want to chat about these programmes, you can get in touch with Barbara Zub, our National Pharmacy Technician, at barbara.zub@waythrough.org.uk, and Jon Findlay, our National Harm Reduction Lead, at jon.findlay@waythrough.org.uk.
Our training materials for pharmacies
To allow you to ensure continuous competency, we have made our training available online. Training for both services takes approximately one hour and involves:
- Self-training: two videos (THN & ENAP) to watch – you can also download presentations for a reference and as a resource.
- Training provided by someone within your team who is already trained: two presentations to be used as a training resource – you can use the videos as a supportive tool.
These videos and presentations can also be used as annual naloxone refresher training for your team.
We also ask that you complete our naloxone competency quiz to assess your knowledge of naloxone. You can find all of these resources below.
Presentation: Supplying take-home naloxone (THN) from community pharmacies
Download the accompanying presentation for your team (49.4MB)Please don't make any edits to the presentation content once you have downloaded it.
Presentation: Emergency naloxone administration programme (ENAP)
Download the accompanying presentation for your team (48.9MB)Please don't make any edits to the presentation content once you have downloaded it.
Naloxone Competency Quiz
You need to get a 100% pass mark to progress in peer-to-peer naloxone programme. Don't worry, you've got this!