PHOENIX — It's a crisis that continues to plague the Valley: the dangers of overdosing on opioids and other drugs. But the city of Phoenix hopes the new tool they debuted will help shine a spotlight on these dangers and help curb the resulting deaths.
The new substance use and overdose dashboard put together by the Office of Public Health in partnership with the City's fire and police departments provides several key data points with details of suspected overdoses by age, ethnicity and location by zip code so residents can see where these incidents have happened.
Nicole Witt, Phoenix's first Public Health Advisor said the dashboard is meant to be an educational tool that can be used to fight overdoes as well as raise awareness about the ongoing problem.
“We see more fatal overdoses in Phoenix than we do car crashes," Witt said.
According to the Arizona Department of Public Health dashboard, there were nearly 2,000 fatal overdoses in 2022 with over 3,000 people suffering from suspected opioid overdoses.
"Our primary goal is certainly to reduce death associated with overdose and so to be able to get out again, have the right conversation around the issues, provide factual information," Witt said.
The growing trend has been seen firsthand by Sarah Grado, the chief programs officer with notMYkid, a prevention and behavioral health agency that works with teens and families struggling with substance abuse.
“Recently, we've had a lot of families come to us where they've actually lost their child to a fentanyl poisoning, and so that's probably the biggest trend or concern that we have right now,” Grado said.
Grado said she believes this new dashboard will help solve the ongoing problem by raising awareness and also encouraging parents to engage in discussions with their kids about drug use.
“It is something to look out for, and to talk to your kids about it, and to really start that conversation and have it be okay to talk about in the home,” Grado said.
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