Renfrewshire Alcohol & Drugs Crisis Outreach Service

The requirement is for an Alcohol and Drugs Crisis Outreach Service that will operate to reduce harm, save lives, and improve access to treatment and care by providing key interventions to prevent drug and alcohol-related deaths.

In line with the MAT standards, the key aims of a Crisis Outreach Service would be to engage with individuals at higher risk of overdose and those who have experienced a near fatal overdose to provide care and support to increase access to life saving protective treatment. The key elements of the response we need for Renfrewshire are as follows:

• Emergency response: maximise capacity and capability of services, families and friends and agencies to deal with a potentially fatal overdose by being properly equipped and trained.
• Reducing risk: maximising support, access, and the range of practical and appropriate choices of pathways for anyone with high-risk drug use; and
• Reducing vulnerability: link with key agencies addressing issues that can predispose vulnerable people to move into higher-risk use of drugs and reducing the associated impact on wider communities.

The Service will include a nursing component as detailed further in the Service Specification.