The U.S. Department of Agriculture has launched a webpage, highlighting resources to help rural communities address the opioid crisis.
The USDA says opioid misuse has negatively impacted the health of Idaho’s rural residents, and the webpage will be a tool to help rural leaders build a response tailored to meet the needs of their community.
“It’s such a big problem, and rural America has been particularly hard hit,” said Layne Bangerter, USDA State Director of Rural Development. “We see a large rise in mortality among working-age adults in rural Idaho and throughout America, and that’s really adversely impacted the well-being of the whole country.”
The National Center for Health Statistics estimates more than 63,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2016, and more than half of those deaths involved opioids, including prescription drugs and heroin.
