The DruGS team has just completed an innovative project exploring women’s perspectives on take-home naloxone, a drug that can temporarily reverse opioid overdose. While research suggests that gender can shape engagement with harm reduction initiatives such as take-home naloxone programs, these issues have only been fleetingly been acknowledged in available research. Responding to this, the DruGS team conducted research examining the potential concerns about take-home naloxone that shape women’s engagement with the initiative in Victoria, Australia.

Led by Dr Nyssa Ferguson, the project team conducted 15 in-depth qualitative interviews with women who were current consumers of opioids and had accessed take-home naloxone in the last 12 months.

As explored in a new research broadsheet, participants offered important insights into how gender shapes uptake and use of take-home naloxone. For example, the research examines a potential burden of responsibility in which participants spoke of feeling exhausted by routinely taking on caring roles such as administering naloxone and tending to people who have overdosed. The broadsheet also documents participant suggestions to better support women to engage with overdose prevention efforts.

As Nyssa explains,

Very little is known about how gender shapes overdose prevention efforts including take-home naloxone programs, especially in an Australian context. This project gave us an opportunity to critically explore issues relating to care, responsibility and gender and to consider how service provision and policy can improve take-home naloxone initiatives in ways that better support women’s safety.

You can find a copy of the broadsheet here.

An additional outcome of the project was the production of a range of resources designed for display and distribution in health services for people who consume drugs. With input from one of Australia’s key consumer representative organisations Harm Reduction Victoria, the project team collaborated with local artist Sam Wallman to design resources that provide information on how to use naloxone in an overdose emergency and where to access it.

Importantly, digital copies of theses resourced are available at no cost. If you work in an alcohol and other drug-related service, or are affected by opioid overdose, we encourage you to email Nyssa to find out more (n.ferguson@latrobe.edu.au).

This research project was conducted by researchers from La Trobe University’s Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society (ARCSHS) and Department of Public Health. Funded by the School of Psychology and Public Health, this project was undertaken between 2023 and 2024.

The project investigator team comprised:

• Dr Nyssa Ferguson (ARCSHS/Department of Public Health, La Trobe University, Australia)
• Dr Adrian Farrugia (ARCSHS, La Trobe University, Australia)

The project staff comprised:

• Dr Andrew Whalley (Department of Public Health, La Trobe University, Australia)