Asset based community development presentation 2012
Naloxone saved my life final draft
1.
2. “ Reduced risks to individuals, less harm to the community,
improved chances of sustainable recovery both physically and
economically. Medically supervised facilities would also
positively impact on the environment....right?”
3. HIGH RISK SITUATION:
TOLERANCE
• Drug related deaths account for
76% of drug related deaths in first
fortnight and 59% of deaths in first
3 months of release.
•Three to eightfold increased risk
of drug related death in first two
weeks, still prevalent up to first
four weeks of release.
• 1 out of every 200 prison releases
between 18-35 (male) significantly
higher for females.
4. “I finally decided that I needed to go to rehab. I needed a spiritual fix.
My life had become a cycle of pain, living on the street, in prison, in
hospital. Round and round.
I found treatment hard and it took me a while to settle in.....about
10 years or so but I kept coming back!!!! ”
• OPIOID RELATED FATALITIES FOLLOWING
HOSPITAL RELEASEARE ONTHE INCREASE.
DOUBLETHE AMOUNT OF DEATHS FOLLOWING
PRISON RELEASE.
• NUMBERS OF INDIVIDUALS DON’T
SUCCESSFULLY FINISHTREATMENT FIRSTTIME.
• THE ‘ROADTO RECOVERY’ HAS MANY PITFALLS
AND PITSTOPS.
Editor's Notes
I have been given Naloxone on at least five separate occasions. Three of those injections brought me back from the dead. So I feel that I owe a huge part of the fact that I am here carrying a message that recovery is possible to Naloxone and the individuals who administered it.
I overdosed a number of times during early addiction and this was usually down to the quality of the heroin that I was using. I wasn’t really a poly drug user until the end when everything and anything to escape the pain of existence was thrown into the mix. A huge factor in this particular overdose situation can be attributed to current policies and procedures. The drugs trade is not the most customer effective business in the world but is the most profitable and quality of product doesn’t really matter to those who sell it, they know that it will sell whatever. It’s time to take control of the drug trade and reduce the risks that those stuggling with addiction take every day of their lives. It’s a public health matter that needs that same attention every other issue would be afforded someone suffering from a terminal illness would be given.
Any normal person would have taken a serious career change after a few periods behind the door in prison but for me it just became an occupational hazard. An MOT centre where I could recover and escape the chaos of life for a break. But it was also an extremely high risk situation when I got released. No matter how many times I said that I’d had enough, I always tried to have just one to celebrate being released. That one could have killed me on a number of occasions, and nearly did. And, it was never just one, I’ve never done one of anything in my life! This no tolerance attitude that is currently the basis off drug policy needs to be reviewed. We need support not punishment.
The body and spirit can only take so much and eventually the only real intervention that works will kick in....Time itself....We all reach that ‘jumping off point’ where we just can’t take no more of the pain that comes from our solution to the pain. Stalemate!!!! Armed with the gift of desperation we have to make a choice.
Armed with the facts....I CHOOSE LIFE!!!!
I carry a message based on my own experience, evidenced with facts from my own life, in the hope that addicts and addiction becomes a public health issue rather than a criminal one, I advocate for positive change and policy reform.
And....primarily I enable people who use drugs to stand up and have a voice.
And I’m a daddy.
I know what worked for me.
And here is a little sneaky peek back at me before the battle began. Aged two, and a bit, all innocent, to a degree.
Lost all my dreams on the way but can now try my best to ensure that my children can keep hold of theirs. Perhaps even help make them come true one day
