Overdose Response and Naloxone training
This training teaches you how to recognise an opioid overdose, respond correctly and administer naloxone to reverse it and save a life. You will learn when overdose risk is highest, how to use naloxone safely, and how to support the person until emergency help arrives. This is essential knowledge for anyone working in substance misuse services where overdoses can and do happen.
What This Training Covers
A clear, practical grounding in overdose response and naloxone.
This training teaches you how to recognise an opioid overdose, respond correctly and administer naloxone to reverse it and save a life. You will learn when overdose risk is highest, how to use naloxone safely, and how to support the person until emergency help arrives. This is essential knowledge for anyone working in substance misuse services where overdoses can and do happen.
Learning Outcomes
By the end, your staff will be able to:
What Your Team Will Learn
A closer look at the overdose response and naloxone module.
The module is built in short, practical sections. Each one teaches a part of the topic, then applies it to a real care scenario and checks understanding before moving on.
What is an opioid overdose and when is risk highest
An opioid overdose happens when someone takes too much of an opioid drug like heroin, methadone or fentanyl and their breathing slows down or stops. Risk is highest when tolerance has dropped after detox, prison release, hospital stay or any period of abstinence. Risk also increases when opioids are mixed with alcohol or benzodiazepines, when someone uses alone, or when the supply is unusually strong or contaminated including with synthetic opioids like nitazenes.
Recognising the signs of opioid overdose
You can recognise an opioid overdose by specific signs. The person will be unresponsive when you try to rouse them. Their breathing will be very slow, shallow or stopped completely. Their lips and fingertips may look blue or grey. Their pupils will be pinpoint small. You may hear snoring or gurgling sounds from their airway. These signs together tell you this is an opioid overdose and naloxone is needed.
The step by step overdose response
When you find someone who may have overdosed, follow these steps in order. First try to rouse them by calling their name and shaking their shoulders. Check their airway is clear and check if they are breathing. Call 999 immediately and say you suspect opioid overdose. Give naloxone by intramuscular injection or nasal spray as you have been trained. Place them in the recovery position on their side. If they are not breathing, give rescue breaths or start CPR. Stay with them. If the overdose returns as naloxone wears off, give another dose. Never leave them alone.
How naloxone works and its limitations
Naloxone is an opioid antagonist that temporarily reverses the effects of opioids like heroin, methadone and fentanyl by blocking opioid receptors in the brain and restoring breathing. It only works on opioids and does nothing for overdoses of stimulants, benzodiazepines or alcohol on their own, although we still give it in mixed overdoses where opioids may be involved. Naloxone is short acting, usually lasting 30 to 90 minutes, so the overdose can return as it wears off. This is why the person must wait for the ambulance even if they feel better.
Aftercare and managing the person when they wake
A person revived with naloxone may wake confused, frightened or in sudden withdrawal which feels very unpleasant. They may be angry, distressed or determined to use again to stop the withdrawal. Your role is to manage this moment with calm compassion. Reassure them they are safe. Explain what happened and why the ambulance is needed. Encourage them to wait rather than leaving. Do not judge or lecture. Treat saving their life as the first and overriding priority. After the incident, offer them fresh naloxone and harm reduction advice for next time.
Supplying take home naloxone and training others
Supplying take home naloxone is a routine, normalised part of keywork and engagement in our service. We offer it to everyone who uses opioids and to their families, partners and friends because they are the people most likely to witness an overdose. We train them on the spot to recognise and respond to an overdose. We restock kits that have been used or expired. At discharge from residential rehabilitation we proactively give naloxone because tolerance falls during abstinence and the risk is very high. We record all naloxone supplied through the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System.
Key Points Covered
The things your team must remember.
- Overdose risk is highest when tolerance has dropped after detox, prison, hospital or abstinence, and when opioids are mixed with alcohol or benzodiazepines
- Recognise opioid overdose by unresponsiveness, very slow or stopped breathing, blue lips, pinpoint pupils and snoring or gurgling
- Follow the response steps in order: try to rouse, check airway and breathing, call 999, give naloxone, recovery position, rescue breaths or CPR if needed, stay with them
- Naloxone only works on opioids, is short acting, and the overdose can return as it wears off so the person must wait for the ambulance
- Manage the person waking up with calm compassion, expect confusion, fear or withdrawal, and treat saving their life as the first priority
- Offer take home naloxone to everyone who uses opioids and their families and friends, train them to use it, and give it proactively at high risk times like discharge
Who and how often
Overdose Response and Naloxone is refreshed every year, for the staff in your care setting whose roles require it. It includes a practical sign-off.
CQC and standards
Supports the training evidence CQC expects to see for a well-run, safe care setting.
How CareStream Delivers It
Not a slideshow once a year. Training that sticks.
CareStream delivers overdose response and naloxone training in the hub your team already uses, grounded in best practice and your own policies, so it fits your care setting and not a generic template.
Teach, then assess
Short teaching sections and a real care scenario, then an assessment that checks understanding.
In any language
Staff complete it in over 60 languages, while your records stay in English.
Learn and retry
A wrong answer triggers a short follow-up lesson and a fresh question, so the gap is closed.
Renewals handled
Automatic reminders at 90, 30 and 7 days, with a live compliance dashboard.
FAQs
Frequently asked questions.
Give your team overdose response and naloxone training that actually sticks.
See how CareStream delivers your mandatory training in the hub, in any language.