A federal judge has sentenced a former substance abuse program supervisor who was charged with a gun crime while working for Cumberland County Mental Health.
Crisis training pays off, but long-term solution needed | citizen-times.com | Asheville Citizen-Times
September 14, 2010
North Carolina has done itself no favors by largely dismantling the public network of mental health services offered in communities across the state after a 2004 push toward privatization. Western North Carolina alone has lost psychiatric programs at several area hospitals.
There hasn’t been a shortage of people with mental health issues, and far too many of them have found themselves running afoul of law enforcement, complicating the already tough job that police officers and sheriff’s deputies face. They pose a danger not only to their fellows, but to themselves. But jail is no place to warehouse those with mental illnesses.
Sea change coming? Federal funds could transform Guilford clinics – The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area
September 12, 2010
Moses Cone and High Point Regional health systems plan to seek a competitive federal designation that could net millions of dollars for their joint program to treat Guilford County’s poor and greatly reduce its reliance on county taxpayer support.
Federal health reform legislation passed earlier this year included more than $9.5 billion over the next five years for local health centers that not treat low-income and uninsured patients, but fully insured patients as well.
Inmate who claimed abuse dies – Raleigh News & Observer Crime/Safety – NewsObserver.com
September 8, 2010
RALEIGH — Timothy E. Helms, a mentally ill inmate whose skull was smashed following an August 2008 fire in his prison cell, died at a Greensboro hospital Sunday morning.
He was 49.
The blunt-force trauma Helms suffered while in custody at a state prison in Taylorsville caused extensive bleeding in his brain, leaving him bedridden and unable to walk. Though he showed some signs of improvement in the past two years, he could still hardly speak or perform such mundane tasks as feeding himself.
Asheville area mother creates Web site, book to focus on special needs kids | citizen-times.com | Asheville Citizen-Times
March 28, 2010
ASHEVILLE — Lynn Rosser was pregnant with her second child when her older son, Aram, was diagnosed with autism.
Less than a month later, Rosser learned the child she was carrying had a congenital heart defect and would need surgery shortly after birth. Jaron Rosser, now 5, had three major surgeries during his first two years.
