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A one-year pilot project will see nasal Naloxone kits distributed at Edmonton’s George Spady Centre, Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Jason Luan announced Wednesday.
Starting June 15, Edmontonians will be able to pick up the kits from the George Spady, located at 10015 105A Ave and more distribution sites will be added throughout the pilot. Naloxone is a medication used to block the effects of opioids and nasal Naloxone is sprayed into the nose instead of injected with a needle.
“Over the course of the next year, the new pilot project will evaluate the impact and the benefits of providing take home nasal Naloxone kits,” Luan said.
“By the time of next summer, thanks to this project, we hope that we will better understand if people prefer using this nasal Naloxone kit or the injectable and what’s the effectiveness of this pilot and how can we roll this over to a provincial-wide strategy.”
The pilot is being funded with $1.5 million from the province and will be led by the George Spady Centre, in collaboration with Alberta Health Services, the Edmonton Police Service and other community partners.
“The (Naloxone) program has provided more than 350,000 injectable Naloxone kits to people across the province since January 2016,” Luan said.
“Nearly 26,000 overdose reversals have been self-reported, meaning thousands of lives have been saved.”
More to come.
