Tag: alcohol abuse

By Hannah Critchfield It was a call with a clear plan of action. The woman on the phone, a member of the Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe in northeastern North Carolina, was ready to leave her abusive partner. She needed a place to stay. So Karen Franco, a victim advocate at the North Carolina Commission of Indian

By Liz Carey Daily Yonder As COVID cases rise in rural areas, a new report found that one in five COVID-19 patients develop mental illness within 90 days of recovery. That could spell trouble for rural residents who already have a harder time getting access to mental health services. The report, published this week in

By Liora Engel-Smith Baby Tyler uttered his first word the other day, and much to Kerry T.’s surprise, that word was “dada.” “I’m the one taking care of you, not your daddy,” Kerry, 21, who did not want her full name used to protect her privacy, chided the six-month-old. Tyler grinned at his mom, flapping

By Anne Blythe This coronavirus pandemic swooped into North Carolina as an unwelcome visitor might and has lingered for months now with no signs of going away any time soon. The weight of that reality has bred higher rates of anxiety and depression, particularly among younger people, as well as more binge drinking and emergency

By Anne Blythe The courtroom on the seventh floor of the Wake County Justice Center was quiet as Judge Vince Rozier read a report from the mother of the 28-year-old defendant awaiting sentencing. That mother, Theresa Morris-Brown, is a petite 63-year-old woman with a gargantuan will to help the man she welcomed into her life

By Yen Duong Under a hot August sun, around 120 supporters, volunteers and well-wishers sweated several Saturdays ago through the ribbon-cutting of a unique North Carolina high school, the Emerald School of Excellence in Charlotte. Housed on the second floor of an auxiliary building of Memorial United Methodist Church, the year-round recovery high school opened

By Rose Hoban The way Rachel Lankford puts it, as a girl, she didn’t spend hours playing in the sandbox, hoping to become addicted to opioids, or alcohol, or marijuana. But she did. By the time she was 20, Lankford had lived hard. Her adolescence, in particular, had been hard. First came a divorce between

By Liz Carey Daily Yonder An increase in sexually transmitted diseases across the country isn’t as surprising to health professionals as is the insight that rates of STDs are rising more in rural areas than in urban areas. Health officials are working to educate rural residents about the dangers of unprotected sex and to make

By Yen Duong With the dogwoods, rhododendrons and mountain laurels in bloom, the Marjorie Williams Academy graduation ceremony on June 1 was already perfect. The entire senior class had received copies of the Dr. Seuss classic, “Oh, The Places You’ll Go!” signed by legislative leaders and their surprise graduation speaker, Gov. Roy Cooper, who also

By Jared Weber Spend a bit of time around any one of four “transition homes,” scattered around Raleigh and there’s a pretty good chance you’ll see Michael McDade fixing something. McDade — better known to those in the program as “Big Mike” — juggles several jobs these days, including a full-time position grilling food at