New overdose DVD

Written by Nigel Brunsdon on 05 October 2009.

The great people behind the Harm Reduction Works campaign sent me an advanced copy of the new overdose DVDs. As always these are incredibly high quality and free to services/individuals in England (available outside the England for a very small cost). So I thought I'd review them here...

So we have two new DVDs both of which contain pretty much the same content. One, be given out to clients has the 3 existing films collected together, and one aimed at services has an extra film showing the importance of running overdose training sessions for clients.

The films

Overdose training DVD Going over: This film has been around for a few years now. It has a number of personal stories of overdose in peoples own words alongside a dramatisation of the situations. This has always been a great little film and one I've personally used in overdose training. It is inter-cut with demonstrations showing people how to use the recovery position. This DVD also allows the going over film to be run on a loop (which was part of the original design back in the days of VHS). You can view this film on YouTube.

Recovery position: A great new film that shows you how to put people in the recovery position. This film always reminds me of the style of Japanese horror films like 'The Ring'. But I think that its jerky film technique is ideal for remembering the different motions. Again this can be viewed on YouTube.

Mr Mange goes over: I've already talked about this film on this blog when it came out last month.The film is available to view on YouTube.

Overdose training film: This is the film that is only available on one of the DVDs, it shows the importance of running overdose training sessions for clients. This for me was quite a powerful film that gets the point across very very well. I know its a film that I'm going to be using on my own training sessions (mainly aimed at workers in harm reduction services) to get people running OD workshops in their own projects.

Leaflet

The client version of the DVD comes with a great OD leaflet that covers the facts and myths about overdose, step by step guide to the recovery position and warning signs information. As always with the Harm Reduction Works campaign this is done in a clear simple format.

Supporting materials

There are plenty of accompanying materials for the overdose part of Harm Reduction Works. We have 2 posters, one aimed at current injectors, and one aimed at people who are detoxed/detoxing. There are also wallet cards with a promise to smoke before injecting if someone decides to return to heroin use.

One criticism

The only negative comment I have on this is that the campaign focuses on depressant overdose, this is of course understandable as the bulk of overdose death in the UK is depressant based. But I know from delivering training myself that there are many workers and injectors out there who are totally unaware of the symptoms of stimulant overdose. Hopefully this will be addresses soon.

Update: Just had an email from Andrew Preston who reminded me that there is a new Crack Cocaine leaflet coming from Harm Reduction Works. However there are no stimulant specific overdose campaigns planned.

You can find out more and order all of the campaign materials via the Harm Reduction Works website.