Raleigh

A look inside the former Dorothea Dix Chapel, which features dark wooden pews and ornate panels.

Former chapel on NC’s Dorothea Dix campus to reopen, welcome visitors, events

January 27, 2020 by Thomas Goldsmith Leave a Comment

Former chapel on NC’s Dorothea Dix campus to reopen, welcome visitors, events - North Carolina Health News

All Faiths Chapel of Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh will become a multi-purpose and welcome center after a $2 million renovation that’s just getting underway. Spiritual gatherings may still take place there, but it will also house concerts, meetings and educational events.

By Thomas Goldsmith The chapel that patients and staff at Raleigh’s Dorothea Dix Hospital attended for almost 60 years is getting a $2 million facelift and will greet visitors to Dix Park as well as offer concerts, community meetings, educational programs, spiritual events and more. The All Faiths Chapel opened in 1955 as a brand […]

A dental professional like a dental hygienist or dentist puts a flashlight into someone's mouth

NC dentists and dental hygienists have been in long tug-of-war over practice limits. Hygienists just gained a bit of ground.

January 23, 2020 by Anne Blythe 1 Comment

NC dentists and dental hygienists have been in long tug-of-war over practice limits. Hygienists just gained a bit of ground. - North Carolina Health News

New scope of practice rules mean dental hygienists will be freer to practice without dentists present. Dentists were OK with the changes.

By Anne Blythe Many of North Carolina’s school children in rural and low-wage areas who have never seen a dentist could have greater access to oral health care soon. On Jan. 16, the legislative rules review commission adopted a long-telegraphed change to scope of practice rules for North Carolina dental hygienists, an amendment that goes […]

Participants in a falls prevention workshop look at photos of common household hazards around a white table.

To prevent senior deaths from falls, NC providers turn to exercise and home-proofing

January 22, 2020 by Thomas Goldsmith Leave a Comment

To prevent senior deaths from falls, NC providers turn to exercise and home-proofing - North Carolina Health News

Deaths following falls is on the rise among seniors. But keeping up strength and mobility can prevent falls, as can making homes safer for those at risk, say North Carolinians working to counter the trend.

By Thomas Goldsmith The family tragedy often unfolds something like this — Cousin Lily, who’s 88, falls at home in August and enters the hospital with a broken hip. By Thanksgiving, Lily is gone; dead following complications. People sometimes don’t realize that Lily could still be living and that older people, in general, can increase […]

Two women interact at an adult day care canter in Raleigh

NC Adult day care centers serve vital purpose, but face stagnant rates

January 7, 2020 by Thomas Goldsmith 1 Comment

NC Adult day care centers serve vital purpose, but face stagnant rates - North Carolina Health News

Adult day care centers don’t have as high a profile as assisted living and nursing homes, but provide a level of care that can allow an older person to stay at home instead of at a residential center.

By Thomas Goldsmith Time spent at an adult day care center can make major life differences for older North Carolinians who have trouble staying at home alone, and for those who look after them. For thousands of caregivers of an older person or someone with disabilities, such a center serves a place of safety and […]

A little holiday toy in Christmas lights as an illustration of holiday toys.

Toys to avoid this holiday season

December 19, 2019 by Sarah Ovaska

Toys to avoid this holiday season - North Carolina Health News

Slime, magnetic toys and more on annual list of unsafe toys.

By Sarah Ovaska It’s the time of year when store shelves are groaning with toys and relatives wander through stores, trying to figure out just what would be just right for a 2-year-old niece, grandson or daughter. But not all the toys out there for sale are necessarily safe, with young children particularly at risk […]

Dorothea Dix Hospital was known for almost a century as a lunatic asylum, as seen here in the inset to the 1872 "Bird's Eye View" map of Raleigh.

As a new Dix park gathers momentum, site’s history provides complex context

December 12, 2019 by Thomas Goldsmith

As a new Dix park gathers momentum, site’s history provides complex context - North Carolina Health News

As planning continues for a destination park on the site of the former Dorothea Dix Hospital, former employees looked back on what made the facility special and how it should be remembered.

By Thomas Goldsmith As the 308-acre Raleigh campus of Dorothea Dix Hospital is being transformed into a destination park, former employees remember it not only as a haven for people with mental illness but also as a nearly self-sufficient small town. Their memories detail many instances of caring treatment by Dix professionals. But the Dix […]

Several students sit on a sidewalk, they are all working on a PFAS project together

Raleigh students take on PFAS pollution

November 21, 2019 by Greg Barnes

Raleigh students take on PFAS pollution - North Carolina Health News

Ten students at The Exploris School, a charter school in Raleigh, hope their project on forever chemicals will help bring awareness to the issue and get industries to stop polluting the state’s waterways.

By Greg Barnes Many eighth-graders at The Exploris School in downtown Raleigh had never heard of forever chemicals before they began their clean water project earlier this year. Now they are on a mission to help educate people in nearby communities about drinking water contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly known as PFAS, and […]

A bunch of men with suits sit around tables in the General Assembley in Raleigh, where last week they changed the definition of sexual assault, closing a loophole in the law.

NC sexual assault reforms pass unanimously

November 7, 2019 by Carolina Public Press

NC sexual assault reforms pass unanimously - North Carolina Health News

Loopholes on revoked consent and incapacitated sexual assault closed without opposition by NC House and Senate.

Kate Martin Carolina Public Press UPDATE: Gov. Cooper signed the bill into law this week. A wide-ranging legislative package reforming sexual assault laws passed both chambers of the NC General Assembly unanimously last week, with two elements closing decades-old legal loopholes on the definition of rape that set North Carolina apart. The Senate passed SB […]

Sec. Mandy Cohen and Deputy Sec. Dave Richard are sitting at a white table in an update on Medicaid transformation to the House Health committee

March to Medicaid managed care switch looking rocky

October 24, 2019 by Sarah Ovaska

March to Medicaid managed care switch looking rocky - North Carolina Health News

At a meeting Wednesday, lawmakers floated the idea of pushing back the date for switching to managed care from the planned Feb. 1 start date.

By Sarah Ovaska-Few No one said it would be easy to move 1.6 million Medicaid recipients away from the existing fee-for-service system that’s been in place for decades, to a new system with a different management and payment model. And that message – it’s not easy — is what state lawmakers heard Wednesday as top […]

a fence is in the foreground, with a dozen men in jumpsuits beyond it, they're sitting on benches and seveal are playing basketball. More inmates with mental illness find themselves in solitary confinement following the 2017 deaths of prison officers in NC.

As NC inmate needs persist, a $6 million long-term care facility sits empty

September 16, 2019 by Thomas Goldsmith

As NC inmate needs persist, a $6 million long-term care facility sits empty - North Carolina Health News

Legislators voted in 2015 to turn a former mental-health treatment space in Central Prison into a long-term care facility for sick inmates. Renovations of the center ended in March, but it remains vacant.

By Thomas Goldsmith Clanking security doors, pristine cells, wide halls and private spaces for medical visits all stand ready at the new long-term care facility at Central Prison in Raleigh. The combined assisted-living and skilled nursing facility take up five floors and 32,930 square feet of former mental health care space, recently converted at a […]

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