Hundreds of Mecklenburg County children face a potential disruption of mental health services this year after the county discontinued a contract with Carolinas HealthCare System this week.

The decision eliminates outpatient counseling services for about 750 children ages 5-18 at Carolinas Medical Center-Randolph, as well as in-school therapy teams that serve about 500 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools students. Also cut is a program that provided case management counselors to help about 75 families navigate the mental health system.

Story continues here ➤

The night of April 1, the Empire State building was lit it up blue. So was the Miami Tower in Miami. Also Wrigley Building in Chicago. And stores across the country, like a Tommy Hilfiger shop in Manhattan.

But in Charlotte? Not Bank of America. Not Wachovia. Not the Panthers stadium. Not the Government Center. One local woman says, “Charlotte – a city who lights up a building blue for a football game – but can’t light up a building one night to shine light upon a very important cause that is affecting more and more children.”

Story continues here ➤

SHELBY — It’s that time of year when scrunching numbers and line items mean the most. And Cleveland County Department of Social Services has their budget ready to send to county commissioners.

Story continues here ➤

“Myrna had more energy than 10 regular people,” said Anna Scheyett, a friend and colleague. “She was always talking really fast and always moving really fast.”

So it came as little surprise to those who knew her when she went into labor during a meeting of the Legislative Oversight Committee at the General Assembly in Raleigh. It was six weeks before her son’s due date, but Wellons, an obsessive planner, already had her bag packed for the hospital.

Three weeks later, on March 1, Wellons died after a catastrophic stroke related to childbirth. She was 40 years old.

Story continues here ➤

RALEIGH, N.C. — Prosecutors on Wednesday cross-examined a forensic psychiatrist about whether a man facing the death penalty knew what he was doing when he shot and killed several people over a 17-month period in 2006 and 2007.

Story continues here ➤

GREENSBORO – Doing more with less may be a necessary economic strategy these days.

But to a group of advocates and providers of behavioral-health care yesterday, the combination of continuing cuts in financing and the inability to get the attention of their elected officials has them wondering how much more they, clients and family members can bear.

The Coalition, a statewide advocacy group, held the third of six town-hall meetings at Dana Auditorium at Guilford College, which drew more than 100 attendees. The group represents 40 organizations advocating for more state money from the General Assembly.

Story continues here ➤

Matthew Stone, who lives in a group home operated by the Rockingham Opportunities Corporation, finds it hard to imagine his home being taken away from him. But that is a very really possibility if the center doesn’t find the funding it needs to stay afloat.

Story continues here ➤

It took a lot of guts to write this book.

It took a lot of guts for five author/editors, each struggling mightily with schizophrenia, to put their names right there, on the cover, for all the world to see.

It took a lot of guts to write this book in the face of so many misconceptions about mental illness.

But then, that was the point.

Story continues here ➤

People who need the services of Catawba Valley Behavioral Healthcare probably won’t care that the new facility needs a little more work.

“Our clients’ needs can’t be put off,” said Don Mott, CVBH chief clinical officer.

“We had to close Friday and Monday, but we’re open for business today.”

The non-profit agency was in the old Catawba County Mental Health building near Catawba Regional Medical Center.

Story continues here ➤

Defense argues beatings led to diminished emotions and post-traumatic stress disorder.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Samuel James Cooper and his four siblings grew up in what one described Monday as “hell,” as their father regularly beat and assaulted them and their mother was helpless to stop it.

Story continues here ➤

The leader of the Alamance-Caswell Local Management Entity wants the state to waive a requirement forcing the agency to join a sister entity.

In North Carolina, LMEs oversee public mental health services and services for those with developmental disabilities and substance abuse issues.

The Alamance-Caswell LME began looking to join another local management entity after Rockingham County’s departure in 2009 dropped the number of covered persons to under 200,000, the minimum number of “covered lives” the state Department of Health and Human Services requires for LMEs.

Story continues here ➤

The facts about depression can be depressing.

More than 17 million adults and 2 million teenagers in the United States battle depression each year, whether because of genetics, family history or chemical imbalances in the brain, according to studies.

Women and teenage girls are twice as likely to suffer from major depression than men. Major depression increases the risk of heart attacks and is a contributing factor in alcoholism, cancer, diabetes, drug abuse, stroke and suicide.

Story continues here ➤

RALEIGH — Last week a Cumberland County jury sentenced Abdullah El-Amin Shareef to life in prison without parole. Prosecutors had been seeking the death penalty. Shareef committed a senseless and terrible crime – in April 2004 he stole a city van, hit and injured three men, then ran over and killed another man, Lonel Bass. He stole Bass’ truck, hit yet another man, then crashed the truck and was arrested. All of these people were strangers to Shareef.

Why did this unthinkable event occur? Tragically, it happened because, just before the incident, Shareef had been turned away from a local mental health program, so his paranoid schizophrenia went untreated. Mental illness explains why, despite temperatures in the 40s, he was wearing only a T-shirt and underwear when he was arrested.

Story continues here ➤

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.

Story continues here ➤

here is a lot of controversy about the upcoming fifth edition of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-5.

The diagnosis temper dysregulation disorder is being proposed as a new category that may be used by clinicians instead of bipolar disorder for children.

Story continues here ➤

A Greenville state Senate candidate who has made an issue of the state’s overpayment of mental health claims is himself on the hook for $4.2 million in Medicaid overcharges for services provided by his family’s company.

Frankie Bordeaux and his wife, Hattie Faye Hardy Bordeaux, signed a settlement with the state in February that included a two-year repayment plan for money improperly collected by Cambridge Behavioral Health Services in Greenville. The first monthly payment, $241,296, was due this month.

Story continues here ➤

More than 100 people gathered in the auditorium of Westwood Elementary School in West Jefferson on Monday, March 22, as guest speaker David Opalewski – a grief recovery expert who teaches at Central Michigan University – gave a lecture on the myths surrounding teen suicide and the best ways to work towards preventing it.

Story continues here ➤

The latest monthly report from the General Assembly’s Fiscal Research Division finds that state revenues through February were just $45 million below projections for the first eight months of the fiscal year, which may lead you to think that state revenues are finally stabilizing and the worst of the state budget problems may be over.

Don’t believe it. The revenue figures, like much of the news about state finances, are much worse than they appear. The state is $45 million short even after receiving $272 -million more than expected this year from a program of collecting past-due corporate taxes.

Story continues here ➤

Policy guidance (the Policy) announced on March 1, 2010, by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) may have wide-ranging and possibly unintended effects on successor liability in transactions involving Medicaid providers. The Policy appears to require that all new providers resulting from a change of ownership, merger or acquisition agree in writing to assume “all liability” of the former provider if they wish to be enrolled in the North Carolina Medicaid program.    

The ability of DHHS to affect successor liability in healthcare transactions by this Policy raises several legal issues and concerns. Although the Policy may have been intended solely to assist DHHS in protecting its recovery of Medicaid recoupments, the “all liability” breadth of the Policy should be a concern for North Carolina Medicaid providers.

Story continues here ➤

Federal health-care reform is promising relief to N.C. hospitals on the millions of dollars they lose each year from uncompensated care. But hospital officials aren’t counting on that money just yet. In fact, most are still sorting out how the landmark legislation will affect their operations.

Health-care providers in North Carolina lose a combined $1.4 billion per year on uncompensated care, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. The changes signed into law Tuesday mean that more patients will have health insurance; by 2014, individuals will be required to have coverage or face penalties.

“Uncompensated care would begin to be reduced immediately as more uninsured people gain coverage,” says Robert Turner, chief executive of Holly Hill Hospital, a mental-health facility in Raleigh. “The bill (also) expands eligibility for Medicaid … to people with incomes up to 133% of the federal poverty level. So we obviously should see a reduction in uncompensated care.”

Story continues here ➤

On an afternoon in June 2008, police in Pinehurst, North Carolina, were dispatched to a white farmhouse. The town is set in an idyllic location, complete with woods, plantation houses and eight golf courses. Many of its inhabitants are retirees, so law enforcement officers generally don’t have much to do. But, in the previous months, they had repeatedly been called to this particular address. Its owner, a 31-year-old man named Joe Dwyer, had been barricading himself in his house, where he kept several pistols and a semiautomatic rifle.

Story continues here ➤

EDENTON — The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs says it expects to announce a decision next month on the site for a new outpatient health clinic in the region for veterans, and that Edenton remains in the running to host the facility.

Story continues here ➤

A Wilmington behavioral health business shut down earlier this month, leaving clients scrambling to look for new providers.

Alpha Omega Health Inc.’s Wilmington office closed March 10, according to a note posted on the door of the vacant office located on New Centre Drive. A sign on the property showed the office building was for lease.

Story continues here ➤

A Wilmington behavioral health business shut down earlier this month, leaving clients scrambling to look for new providers.

Alpha Omega Health Inc.’s Wilmington office closed March 10, according to a note posted on the door of the vacant office located on New Centre Drive. A sign on the property showed the office building was for lease.

Story continues here ➤

Rockingham County Commissioners received a mid-year report from CenterPoint Human Services at Monday afternoon’s meeting. The organization took over public mental health services for the county last year.
Kevin Beauchamp, assistant area director of finance at CenterPoint, presented a financial overview to the commissioners. The total revenue less expenditures through Jan. 31 totaled $2,741,270. He said he is optimistic that they will have a good year.
“Next year we will be very dependent on what the states does in terms of funding,” Beauchamp said. “We are expecting a 3-to-7 percent reduction in our funding, but we are currently making plans to absorb these cuts.”

Story continues here ➤