Likewise and partners hold the Sheffield City Wide Naloxone Conference
Last Friday we had the Sheffield Naloxone Citywide Conference, which we held in partnership with South Yorkshire Police, The University of Sheffield and Sheffield City Council
It was a brilliant event where we talked about how we can collectively raise awareness of naloxone and encourage more people to carry naloxone. We were honoured to welcome expert speakers from across the UK who brought knowledge experience and a huge amount of heart to the room. Their insights helped create a space of positive and genuinely constructive discussion.
And a huge thank you to every attendee for engaging so thoughtfully and to our speakers for leading conversations that really encouraged discussion on how we can use naloxone to stop preventable deaths.
Highlights of the day included:
- Professor Alex Stevens, from University of Sheffield, set the conference up brilliantly by giving an engaging and comprehensive overview on the global response to opiate.
- CEO of the Scottish Drugs Forum Kirsten Horsburgh talked about the Scottish journey on the carriage of Naloxone by Police Scotland, sharing her insights from the experience.
- Dr Matthew Bacon gave a talk on police culture and exploring barriers to carrying naloxone
- Housing worker and Sociology student Melissa Hall gave an incredible powerful and moving talk on how naloxone saved her life, it really brought to life why we were having this discussion.
- Carl Cundall People for Places Service manager, told the moving story of how he used naloxone training he learnt in a professional capacity to save the life of a close friend
- Police Sergeant Simon Pickering talked about the time when he has given in naloxone in the City Centre and saved a life- and why carrying naloxone is important to him.
- Dr Rachel Foster talked about the pathway we have created for naloxone in hospitals, it was brilliant hearing about the impact that partnered working has had.
- National Harm Reduction Lead for Waythrough, Jon Findlay, gave a naloxone training session to all those in attendance – with over 100 people trained on how to use nasal naloxone.
- The University of Sheffield, South Yorkshire Police, Jon Findlay and Likewise all ran engaging workshops that bought about some powerful and construction discussions.
