Name: Utah survey shows youth mental health improving, substance use falling
Uploaded: 2025-12-09T23:00:40.057Z
Duration: 2 min 6 s
Description: Utah’s latest SHARP survey shows encouraging trends: fewer students report depression or suicide plans, and drug and alcohol use has declined since 2023. With more than 78,000 participants, officials say the data will help communities tailor prevention efforts for local needs.

Utah’s latest SHARP survey shows encouraging trends: fewer students report depression or suicide plans, and drug and alcohol use has declined since 2023. With more than 78,000 participants, officials say the data will help communities tailor prevention efforts for local needs.

Utah

A new survey in Utah, based on data from over 78,000 participants, indicates that youth substance use is significantly lower than the national average, with only 3.8% of students reporting alcohol use in the past 30 days compared to 12.5% nationally. The survey also highlights improvements in mental health, including a 28% decrease in reported suicide plans among students across all grades since the last survey.

Local prevention coordinators and health officials attribute these positive trends to targeted programs and community-based strategies. The findings are expected to help communities further tailor their approaches to youth health and wellness, moving away from one-size-fits-all solutions and focusing on local needs.

Utah survey shows youth mental health improving, substance use falling

Youth are often faced with a number of challenges. When I learned about substance use prevention and seeing like, no, we can make change for kids in our community to prevent these bigger issues happening later, I was really drawn to that. Prevention coordinators like Megan Crane are hoping to promote health and wellness for Utah's youth. Looking at the recent SHARP data, it says about 3.8% of students report drinking in the last 30 days. Nationally, it's about 12.5%. We've used the SHARP survey findings in Davis County to bring in strategic programs for youth and for parents to give people the skills that are needed to make it less likely someone develops a substance use issue. Mental health was another important topic in the survey. It showed that fewer students reported having symptoms of depression. And plans for suicide decreased for all grades by 28% from the last survey. The data really validates kind of my own experience as a parent. My daughter comes home. She's had some experience with some mental health challenges, some depressive ideation, which is throughout the state, statewide, youth are reporting very high numbers. As a mom herself, Alisa Stewart with the Salt Lake County Health Department says seeing this updated information helps her better support her kids. High middle school is really, really hard. And I've seen that work. And so I think as a parent and both as a prevention specialist, it's really great to see that those prevention strategies do work. With a large sample size of more than 78,000 participants, Dr. Edward Ho says these results will have a greater impact on our communities. Communities can really kind of get down and understand what's happening within their local bounds and then to be able to do things that are going to be the most effective for their communities versus kind of trying to do a one size fits all thing based on what the state, how the state looks as a whole. As they continue to dig into the data, experts say they'll be working on creating solutions right in the heart of their communities. Julia Sandor, FOX 13 News, Utah.

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