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Health Officials Release New Plan to Prevent Prescription Drug Abuse

Tim Slover

The kit contains information on symptoms of abuse; prevention tips for parents, healthcare workers, and law enforcement officials; as well as a list of substance abuse treatment centers in Ogden, and places where prescription drugs may be dropped off. Jenny Johnson is the injury prevention coordinator for the Utah

Department of Health. She says Ogden is a natural place for the toolkit to target.

“The human services and mental health folks up there are actively reaching out to the community—working with citizens, getting them treatment,” says Johnson. “And so the partnerships were just right. Which is why we wanted to start in downtown Ogden, we felt like this was an area that we can really make a difference in.”

State health officials have broken down prescription drug abuse deaths according to 62 areas.  The area surrounding Downtown Ogden ranks third in Utah for those deaths.  Johnson hopes those who use the toolkit to help prevent drug related deaths will make a difference.

“We intend to take this to other communities,” says Johnson. “And using the successes that are going to come out of the Weber-Morgan County area—take it to them and say we want to do the same thing here: what resources do you have in your community? What unique needs do your community members face? How do we need to address this?”

The toolkit can be found online at the Utah Health Department’s website.  Physical copies will be available at Weber Human Services and Weber-Morgan Health Department.  

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