WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah — The Salt Lake County Health Department and the Healthy West Valley Coalition recently conducted an assessment to see whether residents were aware of the opioid crisis in West Valley City.
On a scale from 1 to 9, the result was a 3.
“Health is all encompassing,” said Alex Kidd with the city's Neighborhood Services Division. "There are so many pieces of the puzzle.”
The assessment, which started last fall and finished in early spring, helped pave the way for West Valley to receive a $20,000 grant this summer to address the opioid crisis and expand local resources. With that grant, they’re creating brochures in English and Spanish, short videos, and classes for the community.
“We’re the most diverse city in the state of Utah; we love that fact. But that also means we need to be responding to our community,” Kidd said.
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They interviewed people from different areas of life, including health providers and residents, Kidd said.
“We landed at a three, which is considered 'vague awareness,’ so our community recognizes that opioid misuse is something that happens, but we don’t really know what’s happening in our community,” Kidd told FOX 13 News. "Who’s taking the charge in addressing that? How are we handling that as a city? There’s not a lot of awareness there.”
Kidd said the resources will be distributed to fire and police departments, as well as community centers and city buildings.
According to data from the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, 603 Utahns died because of drug overdose in 2021. That same year, 67 percent of Utah overdose deaths were related to opioids, and 29 percent were related to fentanyl.
“I hope to see a shift in our residents to just be more aware, to be more empowered, to support themselves and to support their neighbors, their family, their friends,” Kidd said.
