Naloxone, supplied in a small syringe, is injected intramuscularly and can be administered by anyone in an emergency overdose situation.
Since April 2014, Take Home Naloxone has been successful in reversing 598 opiate overdoses.
In 2019-20, it reversed 163 overdoses.
The Public Health Agency, with support from the Health and Social Care Board, coordinates the Take Home Naloxone programme.
Michael Owen, the PHA’s Lead for Drugs and Alcohol, said, “As the figures show, this service provides an important life-saving intervention – each overdose reversal is an occasion when a person could have died but didn’t.
“While only a very small portion of the population here uses heroin or other opiate type drugs, those who do are at a high risk of illness or death.