Take Home Naloxone- COVID-19 Campaign

Since December 2019, Painaustralia has been working with the Department of Health to support the ongoing work around the Take Home Naloxone Pilot. The recent and unfolding situation particularly around the novel COVID-19 pandemic,  has necessitated some change to the campaign strategy and messaging to support people who are on high doses of opioids so that they can readily access precautionary measures to help minimise risks.

The COVID-19 pandemic presents challenges to people living with chronic pain who are uniquely vulnerable to this threat both through compromised immunity and health, as well as the overall disadvantage they face across all social determinants. Painaustralia has been working hard to ensure that people living with pain continue to receive trusted and evidence-based advice through this public health crisis to support their unique needs and improve health outcomes. 

Painaustralia has responded to the emerging need for pain-specific information on the COVID-19 pandemic, including creating a dedicated microsite on our homepage, to meet the significant gap in accessing reliable, quality and credible information on ongoing best practice pain support and treatment.

Given the barriers consumers who are currently on high doses of opioids may face in accessing multidisciplinary care at the moment, Painaustralia is working with the Department of Health to pivot our planned communications activities to focus on opioid related harm minimisation and providing a clear link to how naloxone can aid in that strategy.

We are working towards a targeted social media campaign that can address opioid related harm and the risk of more severe disease with COVID-19. These include associated side effects such as the potential for decreased immune responses, sleep-disordered breathing, ventilatory impairment in post-operative and obese groups and some indications of increased risk of pneumonia. 

This pandemic also provides an opportunity to provide Naloxone education and prescriptions to high risk patients, especially those that are on polypharmacy regimes that include high doses of opioids. This strategy has already been incorporated into the recommendations on Chronic Pain Practice during the COVID-19 pandemic endorsed by the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA) and European Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Therapy (ESRA).

More information can be found here.