This project is an Evaluation of the Western Australian Police Force Naloxone Pilot. The pilot involved training police in use of naloxone to assist in the management of opioid overdoses that they attend in the community. This was a joint initiative of the WA Police Force and the Mental Health Commission (MHC) of Western Australia.
This evaluation, which consisted of a mixed-methods repeated-measures design, was undertaken from the 1st of July 2021 to the 30th of July 2022. Each police officer who received naloxone training between the 9th of June 2021 to the 21st of January 2022 completed a quantitative and qualitative paper-and-pencil survey immediately before (pre-training) and immediately after the training (post-training). The pre- and post-questionnaires collected information about knowledge related to recognising and responding to
opioid overdose and naloxone administration. A total of 272 police officers completed the pre-post training questionnaires.Three to six months after having received naloxone training, participants were invited to complete a quantitative and qualitative online survey. The online survey collected information about the police officers’ demographics,
naloxone training, knowledge retention, access and availability of naloxone, sense of competency and readiness to intervene, and whether they had witnessed overdoses
since the naloxone training. Participants who had indicated they had witnessed an opioid overdose since receiving their training were then invited to complete an additional qualitative phone interview to provide further information about the most recent overdose they witnessed, and their experience as a police officer of administering naloxone to consumers of opioids who had overdosed.