diff --git a/service/db/__init__.py b/service/db/__init__.py
index 67269c5..60b2949 100644
--- a/service/db/__init__.py
+++ b/service/db/__init__.py
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
-from sqlalchemy import create_engine
-from sqlalchemy.ext.asyncio import AsyncEngine
+from sqlalchemy import create_engine, text
+from sqlalchemy.ext.asyncio import AsyncConnection as _AsyncConnection
+from sqlalchemy.ext.asyncio import AsyncEngine as _AsyncEngine
+from sqlalchemy.util import EMPTY_DICT
 
 
 class FAFDatabase:
@@ -24,4 +26,41 @@ def acquire(self):
         return self.engine.begin()
 
     async def close(self):
-        await self.engine.dispose()
\ No newline at end of file
+        await self.engine.dispose()
+
+
+class AsyncEngine(_AsyncEngine):
+    """
+    For overriding the connection class used to execute statements.
+
+    This could also be done by changing engine._connection_cls, however this
+    is undocumented and probably more fragile so we subclass instead.
+    """
+
+    def connect(self):
+        return AsyncConnection(self)
+
+
+class AsyncConnection(_AsyncConnection):
+    async def execute(
+        self,
+        statement,
+        parameters=None,
+        execution_options=EMPTY_DICT,
+        **kwargs
+    ):
+        """
+        Wrap strings in the text type automatically and allows bindparams to be
+        passed via kwargs.
+        """
+        if isinstance(statement, str):
+            statement = text(statement)
+
+        if kwargs and parameters is None:
+            parameters = kwargs
+
+        return await super().execute(
+            statement,
+            parameters=parameters,
+            execution_options=execution_options
+        )