In January and February of this year there was a Utah Wellbeing Project Survey conducted in the Helper, Price, Wellington, and East Carbon. The results are in and Castle Country Radio was able to speak over the telephone with Dr. Courtney Flint about the results.

“So the Wellbeing Project looks at lots of different aspects of people lives and in terms of overall personal wellbeing we saw that Helper and Wellington were a little above average for the rural communities in the study. Price and East Carbon were a little bit below average for rural communities,” said Dr. Flint. There were 29 cities across the state that participated in the Wellbeing Project, but 10 of those falls in the rural area category. All city residents age 18 plus were encouraged to take the online survey.

“So the most important category of wellbeing, what people think is the most important was safety/security, mental/physical health, and living standards. What was really interesting was for all four of those cities connection with nature was the top-rated wellbeing category, so people really appreciate being close to the outdoors and having all those opportunities,” said Dr. Flint. The things that were important to East Carbon citizens but didn’t rate high were safety and security, and local environmental equality. In Wellington, it was physical health that was important but a little low. In Helper and Price, it was mental health, and physical health that were important but were not rated as high.

Many folks may be wondering what happens with the results of the survey and how will it be used. “All of the reports from the survey are up on the Utah Wellbeing Project website. Those have all be sent and given to the city leaders and I’ve offered to come talk to the city councils and answer any questions that anyone has and we’ll follow up. We’ve offered some flyers to help get the website out to residents so that all the folks in the community can take a look and reach back out to us if you have any questions,” explained Dr. Flint. The Utah Wellbeing Project will take this information to help develop resources needed in each community statewide.

The results can be found on the Utah State University Extension Utah Wellbeing Project website.