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North Carolina Health News
Indigenous principles inspire Rights of Nature movement to combat environmental threats
The organizers of the first Earth Day event in 1970 wanted to raise awareness of the environment in the collective consciousness. Now, a half-century later, environmentalists are looking to give nature personhood status. Many contend that environmental protections like the Clean Water Act have proven insufficient to shield wetlands from...
Wilson County deploys overdose reversal kits to combat epidemic of opioid deaths
Small purple boxes have become a promising tool in Wilson County’s fight to lessen the deadly toll of the opioid epidemic. ONEbox is a first aid-like kit that contains doses of naloxone, a nasal spray that can rapidly reverse the effects of opioid overdose. When the kit is opened, a screen embedded in the lid plays a video of a paramedic giving step-by-step instructions for administering the drug.
Guilford County leads the state on fetal, infant death reviews
Guilford County has been tracking infant deaths for decades, yet officials there continue to struggle with high death rates and no answers. Jean Workman and Leandra Vernon with Every Baby Guilford hope to change that with the formation of North Carolina’s only Fetal and Infant Mortality Review program. “As...
Reducing maternal death rates for Black women will take concerted, cooperative action
Almost six years ago, Tomeka Isaac said she came very close to joining a list no one wants to be part of — the tally of Black women who have died related to pregnancy. In May 2018, Isaac’s pregnancy took a turn at 35 weeks when she passed out. She was rushed to a small hospital in Pineville, North Carolina, and admitted to the emergency room.
Over 20,000 children in NC have a parent who’s incarcerated. A handful of them visited prison for a day of bonding and connecting.
These are pretty run-of-the-mill things kids tell their dads at the dinner table, on the couch or during a car ride from place to place. But on a recent Saturday, the setting for these comments was not all that ordinary: Parent Day at Orange Correctional Center, a state-run minimum security prison in Hillsborough.
City-country mortality gap widens amid persistent holes in rural health care access
In Matthew Roach’s two years as vital statistics manager for the Arizona Department of Health Services, and 10 years previously in its epidemiology program, he has witnessed a trend in mortality rates that has rural health experts worried. As Roach tracked the health of Arizona residents, the gap between...
Fighting in the courts may lead to more care options for people with disabilities
It has been a busy few weeks in the courts for an organization that has been a staunch advocate for North Carolinians with disabilities. Disability Rights North Carolina announced a settlement agreement on Wednesday with the state Department of Health and Human Services in a long-running state court battle known as the Samantha R case.
Biden administration’s action on PFAS: A shift in quality of life?
One thing that stood out during Monday’s solar eclipse was the shift in light quality as the moon crept across in front of the sun, shielding the Earth from its rays momentarily before retreating. Three days later, some North Carolinians, especially those living in Cape Fear River Basin communities...
Time running out to extend federal program that provides 900,000 North Carolinians with affordable internet
In September 2023, Sara Nichols went before the Committee on Energy and Commerce in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., to advocate for the continuation of a federal program that has provided more than 900,000 low-income North Carolinians with help paying for internet access. Created through a sweeping...
PFAS research lauded as environmentalists call for regulatory action
If you’ve lived in North Carolina for the past seven years, especially in regions that get water from the Cape Fear River Basin, you’ve likely become familiar with the acronym PFAS, which stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. More than likely, you also know the term can trigger a strong reaction if mentioned in conversation.
Inside Charlotte’s private cadaver lab
In a nondescript office building near the Charlotte airport last month, adults clad in blue gowns crowded around the body of a woman who had died of cardiovascular disease. An instructor gently pressed her gloved finger against the woman’s lung and invited the others to do the same. “If...
Georgia’s medicaid work requirements costing taxpayers millions despite low enrollment
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s plan for a conservative alternative to Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion has cost taxpayers at least $26 million so far, with more than 90% going toward administrative and consulting costs rather than medical care for low-income people. Kemp’s Georgia Pathways to Coverage offers government health insurance...
Child care providers face difficult choices as funding cliff looms
BURLINGTON — Omira Thompson sat on the floor Wednesday feeding lunch to two of the boys in her infant classroom at First Presbyterian Child Development Center. One made a face, then tried to wipe out his mouth with his bib, which made Thompson laugh. “Guess he doesn’t like pear,” she said.
Confidence high that delayed Medicaid plans will finally launch on July 1
North Carolina’s regional managed care organizations that will administer specialized Medicaid plans for people with complex needs say they’re ready for the plans — which have had multiple delays — to finally go live on July 1. CEOs for the four organizations, known as LME-MCOs, appeared...
Prison reentry services. More crisis care beds. Better pay for health care workers. Where $835 million in new mental health money is being spent.
The first few years of the Formerly Incarcerated Transitions (FIT) Wellness program were limited to helping people in Wake County with mental illness who had recently been released from state prison. Evan Ashkin, a family physician from UNC Health who helped found the program in 2017, said that FIT Wellness...
Workforce woes delay support services for N.C. residents with disabilities
Thousands of North Carolinians with intellectual and developmental disabilities rely on caregivers, known as direct support professionals, for help with everyday tasks like bathing and eating. But those workers are in short supply. A recent study by The Arc of North Carolina, a nonprofit that advocates for people with cerebral...
After Appalachian hospitals merged into a monopoly, their ERs slowed to a crawl
In the small Appalachian city of Bristol, Virginia, City Council member Neal Osborne left a meeting on the morning of Jan. 3 and rushed himself to the hospital. Osborne, 36, has Type 1 diabetes. His insulin pump had malfunctioned, and without a steady supply of this essential hormone, Osborne’s blood sugar skyrocketed and his body was shutting down.
Does NC need licensure reciprocity for dentists and hygienists?
As many states struggle with workforce shortages across the health care industry, there’s a national effort to give dentists and dental hygienists more authority to work in multiple states without going through a time-consuming licensure process in each one. Two licensing compacts are being floated, one by the Council...
College students say more people need to know about overdose reversal drug
After Bella Grumet, a UNC Chapel Hill senior majoring in neuroscience, lost a close friend to an overdose last year, she was motivated to become an advocate for harm reduction strategies in hopes of preventing more drug-related deaths among college students. Her friend, UNC Chapel Hill student Elizabeth Grace Burton,...
U.S. Supreme Court justices heard a case on abortion pills Tuesday. How could their ruling affect North Carolina?
Neha Kar, a 23-year-old from Morrisville, woke up at 2:45 a.m. to board a bus to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. She had other things she could have been doing, but spending 10 hours going to and from D.C. on this day was important to her. She wanted to be outside the U.S. Supreme Court as the justices heard oral arguments in a case that could affect access to a medication abortion pill — mifepristone — used in about two-thirds of abortions nationwide.
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Founded in November 2011 as a North Carolina nonprofit, NCHN is an independent news organization devoted to covering health care in the state.
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