Welcome to Partnership to End Addiction’s SPIKE Alert Program. We are so grateful for your help in addressing overdoses in your community. As you know, overdoses, whether from opioids or stimulants,  continue to ravage our country. With your support, we can turn the tide.

Safety measures

In addition to asking people to sign up for the alerts, here are some other safety measures that may help your patients and community.

Opioid-specific actions:

• Educate patients and other community members to recognize signs of an overdose, carry naloxone (Narcan) and know how to use it.
• Suggest the use of fentanyl test strips that detect fentanyl in heroin and other opioids, such as Oxycontin or Percocet, as well as medications like Xanax.
• Educate patients and community members on the benefits of  Medications for Opioid Use Disorder, including methadone, buprenorphine (e.g., Suboxone, Zubsolv) and naltrexone (e.g., Vivitrol). Offer to connect them with a provider if you are unable.

General safety measures regardless of substance:

• Share the Good Samaritan Laws applicable in your state.
• Educate patients on harm reduction measures including:
  • Use extra caution if using alone – let a friend know to check on them via text or another method
  • If in a group, stagger use
  • Suggest snorting or smoking rather than injecting to reduce risks
  • Use clean, sterile syringes if injecting and don’t share them with others
  • Use test amounts – go low and slow
  • Don’t mix drugs, including alcohol
• Connect peer recovery coaches in your community if available with patients and others at risk of an overdose.
• Offer community resources that can help with stable housing, food stamps, insurance sign-up, medical services and transportation. With these basics in place, many people will consider treatment.

Know families who need help?

Partnership to End Addiction offers extensive confidential support for family members in your community with a child of any age struggling with substance use. Check out our free resources including our helpline, peer parent coaching program, Help & Hope by text, online support community and more.

If you have patients that need more assistance, please have them contact the government’s SAMHSA Helpline for personal support.