Reducing Opioid Related Deaths in ex offenders and homeless population

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Reducing Opioid Related Deaths for individuals who are at high risk of death from overdose on release from prison and within the homeless hostels for drug users; an issue further complicated by the impacts of COVID19.

• IRAS ID

  290816

• Contact name

  Anne Campbell

• Contact email

  a.campbell@qub.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  Queen's University, Belfast

• Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

  N/A, N/A

• Duration of Study in the UK

  0 years, 5 months, 30 days

• Research summary

  We are currently working on adapting wearable technologies to prevent loss of life in highly vulnerable and hard to reach populations. Presently, the scale of human costs associated with drug related death is creating an environment of despair and hopelessness for individuals, families, communities, and service providers. The impact of COVID19 on this social problem has been exacerbated due to issues of access to drugs and changes in poly drug use. There has been more emphasis on opioids mixed with street manufactured benzodiazepines, which are highly potent and increase the chance of overdose deaths when mixed with opioids.
  This feasibility project will add to emerging understandings about the use of wearables as a solution to health and social type problems (Lupon 2019, Greenalgh 2019) and primarily how service users feel about wearing the devices.
  The study will be designed in collaboration with service users, who will co-develop, co-refine and test ‘wear’ the devices. The study is not a medical device trial and the data from the device will not be used by hostel staff to base treatment or non-treatment decisions regarding the administration of Naloxone. The main points of interest will be; (i) whether the data recorded on the device can be successfully transferred directly to the secure private server (in UCLAN) and that it is easily accessible to the research team; (ii) the successful creation of an algorithm of a pattern of behaviour that can be determined by respiratory rate and heart rate; (iii) The transferrable data containing the 2 vital output readings will not contain any personal identifiers (e.g. age, gender) that will be used in this study.

• REC name

  HSC REC A

• REC reference

  21/NI/0089

• Date of REC Opinion

  2 Jul 2021

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion