National Addiction Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK; Norwegian Centre for Addiction Research, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Norway.
National Addiction Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK; Norwegian Centre for Addiction Research, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Norway.
Int J Drug Policy. 2022 Sep;107:103787. doi: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2022.103787. Epub 2022 Jul 1.
In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. In the following weeks, most European countries implemented national lockdowns to mitigate viral spread. Services for people who use drugs had to quickly revise their operating procedures to rearrange service provision while adhering to lockdown requirements. Given the scarcity of literature published on overdose prevention during COVID-19 in Europe, we aimed to examine how these changes to service provision affected take-home naloxone (THN) programmes and naloxone availability across Europe.
Between November 2020 and January 2021, we conducted a rapid assessment with country experts from European countries that provide THN. We sent country experts a template to report monthly THN distribution data (January 1, 2019-October 31, 2020) and a structured 6-item survey for completion.
Responses were received from 14 of the 15 European countries with THN provision of which 11 participated in the rapid assessment: Austria, Denmark, England, Estonia, Lithuania, Northern Ireland, Norway, Scotland, Spain (Catalonia only), Sweden, and Wales. All reported reduced organisational capacity during COVID-19, and some put into place a range of novel approaches to manage the restrictions on face-to-face service provision. In six countries, the introduction of programme innovation occurred alongside the publication of government guidelines recommending increased THN provision during COVID-19. Eight of the eleven participating countries managed to maintain 2019-level monthly THN distribution rates or even increase provision during the pandemic.
Through programme innovation supported by public guidelines, many European THN programmes managed to ensure stable or even increased THN provision during the pandemic, despite social distancing and stay-at-home orders affecting client mobility.
2020 年 3 月，世界卫生组织宣布 COVID-19 为全球大流行。在接下来的几周内，大多数欧洲国家实施了全国封锁，以减轻病毒传播。毒品使用者服务机构必须迅速修改其运营程序，在遵守封锁要求的同时重新安排服务提供。鉴于 COVID-19 期间在欧洲发表的关于过量预防的文献稀缺，我们旨在研究服务提供方式的这些变化如何影响了在欧洲各地的携带纳洛酮（THN）计划和纳洛酮的供应。
在 2020 年 11 月至 2021 年 1 月期间，我们与提供 THN 的欧洲国家的国家专家进行了快速评估。我们向国家专家发送了一个模板，用于报告每月的 THN 分配数据（2019 年 1 月 1 日至 2020 年 10 月 31 日）和一份结构化的 6 项调查以供完成。
共有 15 个提供 THN 的欧洲国家中的 14 个对快速评估做出了回应，其中 11 个国家参与了快速评估：奥地利、丹麦、英格兰、爱沙尼亚、立陶宛、北爱尔兰、挪威、苏格兰、西班牙（仅加泰罗尼亚）、瑞典和威尔士。所有国家都报告称，在 COVID-19 期间，其组织能力有所下降，并且有些国家采取了一系列新颖的方法来管理对面对面服务提供的限制。在六个国家，在发布政府指南建议在 COVID-19 期间增加 THN 供应的同时，引入了计划创新。11 个参与国中，有 8 个国家设法维持了 2019 年每月 THN 分配率，甚至在大流行期间增加了供应。
通过公共指南支持的计划创新，许多欧洲 THN 计划在大流行期间设法确保了稳定或甚至增加了 THN 的供应，尽管社交距离和居家令影响了客户的流动性。
