Guidance

Preventing drug related deaths

Report on the causes of the rise in drug related deaths and how to prevent future deaths.

Documents

Understanding and preventing drug related deaths

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Details

Drug treatment commissioners and providers can use this report to understand the causes of the rise in drug-related deaths, and how to prevent future deaths. It contains the findings and recommendations of an independent national expert group of clinicians, academics and service users.

It covers death by drug misuse, drug poisoning, and long-term consequences of drug misuse and related ill-health.

The report is based on:

  • analysis of data on drug misuse deaths from 1993 to 2014
  • local thinking and practice
  • expert group members’ experience and knowledge

Health matters: preventing drug misuse deaths shows the reasons behind the rise in drug misuse deaths, and what providers and commissioners can do to prevent deaths from drug misuse.

Read about ‘how to setup a review process’ on the UK Government Web Archive. This document gives commissioners advice and real-life examples on how to set up a local review process to investigate the causes of drug related deaths.

Published 1 September 2016