Socio-cultural shifts around gun violence, mental health, and drug use has young people dying at higher rates from known dangers. 

Public health officials focus extensively on reducing mortality rates especially as new challenges evolve. The last two decades has seen a surge in mental health issues, opioid overdoses, and gun violence, all of which share a connection to each other and these rates. Previously public health mortality reduction strategies focused heavily on vaccines, vehicle safety, as well as tobacco and alcohol education. Now officials are needing to pivot as younger individuals are suffering from new risks at higher rates.

According to a Stateline article, 37 states in 2022 have recorded the number one cause of death for individuals under the age of 40 as accidental overdose. Additionally, in 40 states and the District of Columbia, overdoses represented the biggest increase in death cause for young people. Substance related risks have been a public health focus historically; however, deaths associated with alcohol and tobacco use, while significant, have not taken place with the immediacy of opioid overdose deaths.