Draper Wellness

Call, text, or chat 988 if you are having a hard time. The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is a free, confidential hotline available 24/7/365. Crisis workers are available to help if you’re in distress, thinking of suicide, or need emotional support. Interpreters who speak more than 150 languages are available.

Additional services accessible through 988 include:

·         Veterans Crisis Line (Call 988 and press 1)

o   Connect with counselors who have additional experience and training in supporting veterans and their families.

·         Spanish speaking crisis workers (Call 988 and press 2)

o   Connect directly to a Spanish speaking crisis counselor.

·         LGBTQ+ support services (Call 988 and press 3)

o   Connect to counselors who have additional experience and training in supporting individuals in the LGBTQ+ community.

·         Mobile Crisis Outreach Teams (MCOTs)

o   Free face-to-face help for Utahns who are having a mental health challenge. Trained crisis workers will meet you wherever you are – at home, work, school, or anywhere in your community. Available 24/7/365. They will be in an unmarked vehicle to protect privacy.

·         Receiving centers

o   These centers provide a safe space to be when you’re having a mental health challenge but don’t need to be hospitalized. People who have had similar experiences are there to listen and help (called peer respite). You only stay at a receiving center for one day (24 hours or less).

·         Stabilization and Mobile Response (SMR)

o   Provides intensive, in-home intervention services to children, youth, and families. Services are for youth who are struggling with anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, high family conflict, self-harm, or substance use. Helps families create plans to help prevent and manage future crises and connects them with helpful and ongoing resources.

·         Utah Warm Line

o   Utah residents who need connection from others who have walked similar paths may call the Utah Warm Line for that support. Certified peer support specialists are available 8am-11pm, 7 days a week, 365 days a year at no cost.

Learn more about community crisis intervention and support services

The following information is from youth.gov and is directed at teaching youth what healthy and unhealthy relationships look like. Everyone can benefit from reviewing this information. 

Healthy Relationships

Healthy relationships share certain characteristics that teens should be taught to expect. They include:

• Mutual respect. Respect means that each person values who the other is and understands the other person’s boundaries.
  
  
• Trust. Partners should place trust in each other and give each other the benefit of the doubt.
  
  
• Honesty. Honesty builds trust and strengthens the relationship.
  
  
• Compromise. In a dating relationship, each partner does not always get his or her way. Each should acknowledge different points of view and be willing to give and take.
  
  
• Individuality. Neither partner should have to compromise who he/she is, and his/her identity should not be based on a partner’s. Each should continue seeing his or her friends and doing the things he/she loves. Each should be supportive of his/her partner wanting to pursue new hobbies or make new friends.
  
  
• Good communication. Each partner should speak honestly and openly to avoid miscommunication. If one person needs to sort out his or her feelings first, the other partner should respect those wishes and wait until he or she is ready to talk.
  
  
• Anger control. We all get angry, but how we express it can affect our relationships with others. Anger can be handled in healthy ways such as taking a deep breath, counting to ten, or talking it out.
  
  
• Fighting fair. Everyone argues at some point, but those who are fair, stick to the subject, and avoid insults are more likely to come up with a possible solution. Partners should take a short break away from each other if the discussion gets too heated.
  
  
• Problem solving. Dating partners can learn to solve problems and identify new solutions by breaking a problem into small parts or by talking through the situation.
  
  
• Understanding. Each partner should take time to understand what the other might be feeling.
  
  
• Self-confidence. When dating partners have confidence in themselves, it can help their relationships with others. It shows that they are calm and comfortable enough to allow others to express their opinions without forcing their own opinions on them.
  
  
• Being a role model. By embodying what respect means, partners can inspire each other, friends, and family to also behave respectfully.
  
  
• Healthy sexual relationship. Dating partners engage in a sexual relationship that both are comfortable with, and neither partner feels pressured or forced to engage in sexual activity that is outside his or her comfort zone or without consent. 

Unhealthy Relationships

Unhealthy relationships are marked by characteristics such as disrespect and control. Youth need to be able to recognize signs of unhealthy relationships before they escalate. Some characteristics of unhealthy relationships include:

• Control. One dating partner makes all the decisions and tells the other what to do, what to wear, or who to spend time with. He or she is unreasonably jealous, and/or tries to isolate the other partner from his or her friends and family.
  
  
• Hostility. One dating partner picks a fight with or antagonizes the other dating partner. This may lead to one dating partner changing his or her behavior to avoid upsetting the other.
  
  
• Dishonesty. One dating partner lies to or keeps information from the other. One dating partner steals from the other.
  
  
• Disrespect. One dating partner makes fun of the opinions and interests of the other partner or destroys something that belongs to the partner.
  
  
• Dependence. One dating partner feels that he or she “cannot live without” the other. He or she may threaten to do something drastic if the relationship ends.
  
  
• Intimidation. One dating partner tries to control aspects of the other's life by making the other partner fearful or timid. One dating partner may attempt to keep his or her partner from friends and family or threaten violence or a break-up.
  
  
• Physical violence. One partner uses force to get his or her way (such as hitting, slapping, grabbing, or shoving).
  
  
• Sexual violence. One dating partner pressures or forces the other into sexual activity against his or her will or without consent.

Connect with your Teen

Salt Lake County offers a FREE online class for caregivers of teens to help you stay connected. 

Staying Connected with your Teen Program Information

Substance Use Prevention

While young adults ages 18-25 have the highest rates of drug use across the board, drug use among adults ages 26-49 is on the rise. Following are some statistics from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). 

• The percentage of adults age 26 and older using marijuana daily or almost daily has nearly doubled since 2015.
  
  
• Cocaine use and death rates have risen; cocaine-involved overdose rates in the U.S. have risen annually since 2012.
  
  
• Meth use and overdose death rates climbed more than five-fold for those ages 25 to 54 between 2011 and 2018.

Crush the Crisis

• Prescription drug misuse is a public health crisis in the United States. Encouragingly, for the first time since 2018, national prescription drug misuse is decreasing. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were an estimated 107,543 drug overdose deaths in the United States during 2023 – decreasing 3% from 111,029 deaths estimated in 2022.
  
  
• According to the 2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 5 million people misused prescription pain relievers, 4.8 million people misused prescription tranquilizers or sedatives, and 4.3 million people misused prescription stimulants in 2022. The survey also showed that a majority of misused prescription drugs were obtained from family and friends, often from the home medicine cabinet.

Know the Risks of Using Drugs

All drug use comes with risk. Know the facts before letting drugs take their toll on you and your family.

• Drug use—including marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, as well as prescription drug misuse and illicit opioids—among adults is on the rise.

Different drugs pose different dangers. Drug use can lead to dependence and addiction, injury and accidents, health problems, sleep issues, and more. Drug use affects you and those close to you. Know there is help.

Do you or someone you know hide their drugs?

The Risks are Real

The pressures on adults are real. Building careers, buying homes, getting married, having kids, and trying to do it all well comes with a lot of pressure.  Some turn to drugs to cope. Just because some drugs are legal, doesn’t mean they are less dangerous.

Over time, the regular or habitual use of drugs becomes a crutch and only adds to the stress. Drugs can also cause other harms, including:

• • Cocaine: Highly addictive, cocaine is involved in nearly one in five overdose deaths; its health effects include asthma, bowel decay, and increased risk of HIV.
    
    
  • Methamphetamine (Meth): Meth causes devastating health effects, and sometimes death, even on the first try. Meth speeds up the body’s systems to dangerous levels. Chronic users experience anxiety, confusion, insomnia, paranoia, aggression, and more.
    
    
  • Prescription and illicit opioids: Highly addictive, the substances are the top cause of overdose deaths; health effects include confusion, nausea, constipation, coma, and brain damage.
    
    
  • Marijuana: Even though it is legal in many states, studies link marijuana use to various negative outcomes.

Before the risks become real and before drugs turn your life—and your family—upside down, know there is help. You can quit.

A harmful health behavior in Draper among teens and young adults is vaping, or the use of electronic cigarettes. Although vaping is often equated with smoking tobacco since many vaping products contain nicotine, School Resource Officers report that THC (the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana) vaping has become more prevalent in schools in recent years. 

Canyons School District shared the following data from the Utah Student Health and Risk Prevention (SHARP) survey related to these trends. The SHARP survey is administered to students voluntarily (with parent permission) in grades 6, 8, 10, and 12 and asks questions about youth’s experience with risky or harmful behaviors. 52,679 students participated in the survey statewide in 2023. The percentages below reflect lifetime usage for Canyons School District students. 

Cigarettes and Vaping Products

6th: 2021 - 3.1%
        2023 - 2.4%↓

8th: 2021 - 6.5%
        2023 - 2.3%↓

10th: 2021 - 7.9%
          2023 - 7.3%↓

12th: 2021 - 9.6%
          2023 - 11.3%↑

Although three out of four grades have decreased use since 2021, Canyons School District stats are above the state average, except in 8th grade, where the State is 3.3% higher.

Marijuana

6th: 2021 - 2.3%
        2023 - 2.1%↓

8th: 2021 - 7.3%
        2023 - 5.3%↓

10th: 2021-13.7%
          2023- 14.5%↑

12th: 2021-27.9%
          2023- 21.8%↓

Again, although three out of four grades have decreased use since 2021, Canyons School District stats are above the state average.

So, what can we do to help? Talk to kids about the health risks. Ask in a non-judgmental, concerned way if they have tried vaping. Also watch for signs that could be related such as new smells (fruity or other scents), e-cigarette supplies like cartridges, or new health issues like coughing or wheezing. If they are vaping, offer support and motivation to quit. The teenage years are the most important time for brain development so we must do what we can to protect teen brains from harmful substances.