-
News & Opinion
Insufficient Oversight Allows Dangerous Conditions in NC Jails
Missed supervision rounds. Overcrowded facilities. Skipped fire drills. State inspectors with the NC Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Health Service Regulation routinely found these issues and more while evaluating the state’s 109 jails for compliance with the minimum operating and safety standards. Inspection failures are not rare…
Read More » -
News & Opinion
Amid the Trials of Long COVID, Glimmers of Hope at UNC Clinic
Charlotte’s Brooke Keaton and Pinehurst’s Tony Marks both lived orderly, productive lives two years ago. That was clearly reflected in their steady jobs and close family ties. However, their experiences with the long-term effects of infection with the COVID-19 virus have touched and, in many cases, devastated nearly every other…
Read More » -
News & Opinion
Death Expo Lifts Veil on Myths and Mystery of Funeral Planning
John Jull has worked as a truck driver, a reporter, in insurance claims and now his day job is working as a maintenance guy at a garden center. The Roxboro resident finds the most meaning in his side gig; he makes plain pine coffins. “‘Calling’ is the word I’ve used,”…
Read More » -
News & Opinion
Pregnant People with Disabilities Often Don’t Get Proper Care
In her regular life, Asheville resident Tiffany Grzankowski lives with a lot of pain. She has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), a cluster of genetic disorders that impacts connective tissue. For Grzankowski, in addition to chronic pain, EDS means her blood pressure and heart rate rise and fall without much warning, she…
Read More » -
News & Opinion
Samaritan House Offers Respite Care for Homeless Community
Michael Robinson needed somewhere to recuperate after spending 21 days at Atrium Health Mercy hospital in Charlotte battling kidney failure. The 66-year-old did not have a home in the area at the time, so he sought refuge at Samaritan House, a Charlotte facility where people without stable housing can recover…
Read More » -
News & Opinion
Medical Marijuana Advocates Face Another Year with No NC Legislation
Chris Suttle planned his funeral five years ago. The commercial insurance consultant was diagnosed with a frontal lobe brain mass in 2017. Doctors left him with two choices: undergo a full craniotomy and biopsy the mass to see if it was aggressive or simply wait out his fate. Instead, the…
Read More » -
News & Opinion
As Mental Health Hotline Goes Live, Is North Carolina Ready?
The universal mental health crisis hotline, which can be reached by dialing 9-8-8, has gone live across the nation. The idea behind the shift from the 10-digit National Suicide Prevention Lifeline to the three-digit mental health crisis number is that it’s easy to remember — similar to 9-1-1 — and…
Read More » -
News & Opinion
Carolina Abortion Fund Does More Than Help Patients Pay for Procedures
Anna wasn’t sure if she wanted to be a mom. She was sure that she wasn’t happy with her part-time job — which didn’t offer health insurance — and that she and her partner were in a rough spot in their relationship. A northern transplant to the Triangle in her late twenties,…
Read More » -
News & Opinion
NC Advocates Push for More HIV Awareness as COVID Restrictions Lift
As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, North Carolinians sheltered in place, masked up and maintained distance, all in an effort to stop the spread of the infectious disease. Along the way, awareness around other infectious diseases, such as HIV, has dropped. But that disease hasn’t gone away. One recent study found…
Read More » -
News & Opinion
Tension Builds Around How to Spend NC Opioid Settlement Money
The first payments from a $26-billion, multi-state opioid lawsuit settlement are set to arrive in the states later this spring, and in North Carolina, there are already disagreements over which groups are most qualified to receive the money. Over the course of 18 years, North Carolina will receive $750 million of…
Read More » -
News & Opinion
What the Pandemic Showed Us About Juvenile Justice in Schools
As a former district court judge, N.C. Rep. Marcia Morey has seen firsthand how children can get entangled in the state’s juvenile justice system. The path from school to the courtroom is similar for many kids, Morey said. They skip school, break the rules or act out in class, prompting a…
Read More » -
News & Opinion
Medication-Assisted Treatment for Pregnant People Hard to Come by in NC Jails
The opioid epidemic has continued to worsen across North Carolina, and it has impacted all kinds of people — including people who are pregnant or will become pregnant. Much of the fallout from the opioid crisis has trickled down to county jails and other carceral institutions, as 85% of the…
Read More » -
News & Opinion
Rapid Antigen Tests Are Coming. What’s the Best Way to Use Them?
In the coming days, people seeking a rapid test to see if they’re positive for COVID-19 will be able to put information into a federal website and ask for up to four rapid tests. Ten to 12 days later, they should arrive in the mail. And over the past weekend, federal rules…
Read More » -
News & Opinion
Opioid Addiction Treatment in N.C. Not Separate but Still Unequal
John Woodyear is a primary care physician who specializes in addiction treatment. On most days, his waiting room at the Family Care Clinic & Associates is filled with patients waiting to get their prescription for buprenorphine, a medication to treat opioid substance use disorder (SUD) sold under the brand names…
Read More » -
News & Opinion
COVID Testing Policies in NC Prisons Cause Confusion, Fear
As the most recent COVID-19 outbreak spread through the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women late this summer, the most pervasive feeling among those incarcerated was fear — fear that they would get sick, fear that they wouldn’t make it home, fear that no one on the outside really knew…
Read More » -
News & Opinion
A New Option for Charlotteans in a Mental Health Crisis
On a patio tucked behind an old brick two-story house, Susan Hart sat on a glider surrounded by lush green plants under the glow of string lights. She wondered aloud what it would have been like to check herself into a place like this instead of a psychiatric hospital during…
Read More »
