Amelia Knisely, Author at West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Residents Verifying Internet Access Key To Acquiring Funds To Address Coverage Gaps

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has released a draft of a map detailing broadband availability across the U.S., but unlike previous versions, residents can now challenge the accuracy of the information about their internet.

For years, the FCC has generalized broadband coverage, and the data did not accurately reflect internet access in rural areas.

Kelly Workman, director of the West Virginia Office of Broadband, said they’ve already found 138,000 instances where the map wrongly reported on internet locations.

She encouraged residents to verify their internet availability and location by entering their home address on the FCC’s online map.

“We encourage all West Virginians to participate in this process,” Workman said. “We have heard from West Virginians all throughout the state about the faulty reporting, so we know the frustration is out there.”

The coverage map impacts federal funding to address internet gaps, and the state will compete for millions of dollars in infrastructure grants to improve internet access.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has nearly $42.5 billion to put toward the country’s internet issues from funding created by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

U.S. Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., recently hosted an informational session for West Virginia community leaders on how to check coverage and challenge the maps when necessary.

“West Virginia is primed to receive and compete for hundreds of millions of dollars to bring reliable, affordable broadband access to all West Virginians, but only if the broadband coverage maps are correct,” Manchin said. “Because of our bipartisan efforts and years of advocating, West Virginians can now finally search the FCC’s maps to see if they accurately show broadband coverage at an address.”

Capito added, “For years now, I have worked hard to make sure we produce broadband maps that accurately represent the connectivity challenge that we face in West Virginia, especially because they will be a major factor in the distribution of Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding … I continue to have concerns regarding their accuracy in West Virginia.”

Challenges to the FCC’s information are due by Jan. 13, 2023, and the West Virginia Office of Broadband has outlined how to submit a challenge on its website.

Salvation Army Reports Increased Need For Food In Central W.Va. As Holiday Donations Lag

The nonprofit organization’s annual holiday fundraiser program provides food, toys and more for families.

The sound of a ringing bell to call for donations is familiar during the holidays. The Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Campaign is underway, and, in West Virginia, donations are down while the need for food is increasing. The nonprofit organization’s annual holiday fundraiser program provides food, toys and more for families.

Amelia Knisely spoke with Maj. Joseph May, the area commander for the Salvation Army of Central West Virginia, which serves Boone, Clay, Kanawha, Logan, Mingo, Putnam and Roane counties.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

KNISELY: Thanks for speaking with me today. Your Red Kettle Campaign is underway, and what do the funds go to in your program in the seven counties that you support?

MAY: Primarily, we’re raising funds to help support and fund our Christmas program, our Angel Tree program to provide food and toys and clothing to children across the seven counties that we have. That program is similar in the other counties across West Virginia in their different locations as well. Any money we raise above and beyond the expenses of Christmas, we put into the general budget to support the programs throughout the year, which includes rent and utility payments, food boxes, our Boys and Girls Club Program, camp programs, just a whole wide range of things the Salvation Army does throughout the 12 months of the year. It is our most prolific fundraising effort of the year.

KNISELY: With inflation being what it is and that we’re still in a pandemic, have you seen your needs increase in the counties that you serve?

MAY: Yes, we have seen some increase due to Covid over the last three years. There’s been a lot of assistance given through government programs during that time, but those programs are starting to close, and we have seen an increase in the requests for food, partially, in the last few months. Those who have had trouble making ends meet are finding it even harder now. With the cost of food, food has been one of the things we’ve seen an increase in requests for.

KNISELY: In 2020, the national commander of the Salvation Army said red kettle donations were expected to drop 50 percent, and I’ve seen headlines just in the last few days that there are continued concerns about donations being down all across the country right now because of inflation and because people are still not out as much shopping in person. How is the campaign going in West Virginia and are you experiencing any of that drop in donations?

MAY: We see a drop in donations, but I wouldn’t say it’s 50 percent in our area. I haven’t done a study to see the percentage amount. But, there has been a drop in the financial support in the last year or so. After Covid, there was a huge increase, and we had a lot of extra support. But now that Covid situation is subsiding, even though we recognize it’s not gone away, but it’s certainly subsided, that level of support has dropped.

Our goal this year is $200,000. Right now, we are at $90,000, so we are not even halfway toward our goal. We are about 3 percent below where we were at this point last year, but we have seen an increase in the last week or so, so that gap is narrowing.

KNISELY: How many bell ringers do you have this year?

MAY: Right now, and we’ve struggled with that, but we’ve had some success in getting some additional ringers in the last week or so. Right now I have about 15 bell ringers. Three or four weeks ago when we started, I had about 10 that I could count on. We have permission from businesses in our area to have 30 – to have 30 kettles open every day. But, we just don’t have the bell ringers to fill those spots.

KNISELY: For people who want to donate, including people who may not be able to donate to red kettle in person, how can they help?

MAY: They can go to www.salvationarmyusa.org. There’s a place on there you can tell where you’re from, and when you get to your local unit, you can make a donation that way. We have a Facebook page: Salvation Army Charleston West Virginia, and there are a number of posts on there that have links that you can donate online. On our Kettle Stands, for people who don’t carry cash, we have a QR code on the back of the sign that they can scan, and that will take them to a website. They can donate that way, they can donate by Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPay and Venmo, if they want. There’s a number of ways that people can give.

KNISELY: That’s great to know, I didn’t know that. So, if I see someone ringing the bell, and I don’t have cash on me, they have a way for me to still donate electronically as I’m standing there. Good to know.

MAY: Yes, on the back of the sign there’s a sticker that has the QR code, and it actually has a disc you can tap if you have that capability with your phone. You can tap that and make a donation.

KNISELY: Is there anything else you want to add for our listeners?

MAY: We appreciate the continued support of people in our community. They are giving at a great level. We appreciate the businesses that are letting us stand outside their stores. They are very generous. We don’t take that for granted. We could just use more bell ringers. We have volunteers, and we have a few more volunteers than we did last year. I think people are feeling more comfortable coming out after Covid. But, we don’t have enough volunteers so we have to hire some bell ringers.

KNISELY: How long do people have to donate to this campaign?

MAY: Our kettles will be out until Christmas Eve.

KNISELY: Thanks so much for speaking with me.

May also reminded people who have selected children from the Angel Tree gift program to please drop-off gifts before the program’s deadline.

Advocate Brings Transparency Concerns About Treatment Of People With Disabilities To Lawmakers

The state health department is attempting to conceal information about the treatment of people with disabilities who are in state care, according to an attorney with Disability Rights West Virginia.

The state health department is attempting to conceal information about the treatment of people with disabilities who are in state care, according to an attorney with Disability Rights West Virginia (DRWV).

Mike Folio, attorney for DRWV, told state lawmakers Tuesday that this year his organization made 80 visits to William R. Sharpe Hospital, a state-run psychiatric facility in Weston. Under federal law, DRWV monitors the treatment of West Virginians with disabilities in facilities run by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR).

“Last Tuesday, two of my advocates and I … met with Sharpe Hospital employees, who I would call our informants. They shared with us disconcerting information that they were told by (DHHR) leadership not to talk to DRWV,” Folio told lawmakers in the Joint Health Committee.

“As we dig into this, we see a pattern, a practice, a habit, a custom of concealing information,” he continued. “That violates federal law.”

Folio said what’s going on at Sharpe Hospital is “an abysmal failure.” In contrast, he noted that DHHR is doing well with patients at the state-run Mildred Mitchell Bateman psychiatric hospital in Huntington.

DHHR Cabinet Secretary Bill Crouch was given the opportunity to rebut Folio’s comments in front of lawmakers. He called for an investigation of his agency and into DRWV’s practices and said DHHR does its own investigations of its state-run hospitals. The state Office of Health Facility Licensure and Certification, which is under DHHR, also conducts facility investigations.

“The implication that we’re covering things up … it is wrong. We take good care of folks,” Crouch said. “We don’t sweep things under the rug. We tell the truth.”

The presentation to lawmakers added to the growing list of issues that have come to light about DHHR’s treatment of people with disabilities who are in their care.

In October, Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, sent the governor a list of what the lawmaker called abuse under DHHR’s care and issues at Sharpe, and his letter included concerns about DHHR’s transparency about issues. And last month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched an investigation into DHHR’s alleged discrimination against patients with disabilities by allowing them to be unnecessarily institutionalized. Lawmakers have heard concerns about treatment of patients with disabilities in previous legislative sessions.

Much of Folio’s presentation focused on what he referred to as “patient dumping” or “warehousing patients” by allowing them to remain unnecessarily institutionalized. He said the agency has spent $20.3 million to institutionalize 29 patients this year, which is more than $700,000 a patient.

Crouch has maintained the state does not have enough community placements for people with disabilities.

“We certainly want these people in the right level of care. There’s no intent to keep people in psychiatric care,” he told lawmakers.

Folio is a former attorney for DHHR, and Crouch, in response to the presentation, said that Folio has made DRWV’s investigation a “personal attack” on the agency.

“Mr. Folio says that (DRWV) is not adversarial with DHHR … then he goes on to criticize every aspect of DHHR. Then, he gets personal with our CEO and myself,” Crouch said.

Folio told lawmakers, “We are not here as an adversary of DHHR. We are here as an ally of the disabled persons who have no voice.”

DHHR has currently instated a hiring freeze as it is undergoing an internal restructuring in an effort to improve agency outcomes. The changes following the $1 million review from the McChrystal Group, which said the agency was in need of “bold changes.” Lawmakers have criticized the report for its lack of substance amid the state’s poor health outcomes.

New Federal Investigation Targets DHHR’s Treatment Of People With Disabilities

The federal government has launched a civil rights investigation into the West Virginia Department of Human Resources’ treatment of persons with disabilities who are in the state agency’s care.

In a Nov. 14 letter, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources Office for Civil Rights said the investigation was based on a complaint filed by Disability Rights West Virginia (DRWV). Under federal law, the organization monitors the treatment of people with disabilities in the state’s facilities.

The investigation centers on DRWV’s complaint that DHHR allegedly unlawfully discriminated against people with intellectual and developmental disabilities by not providing appropriate services that could have prevented institutionalization.

“In the complaint, (DRWV) alleges that DHHR fails to administer services, programs and activities in the most integrated setting appropriate to meet the needs of qualified individuals with disabilities,” the letter stated.

The Office for Civil Rights said patients are “now needlessly segregated in state- operated hospitals.”

Under state law, DHHR is responsible for persons with disabilities who are in state-run facilities.

DHHR Cabinet Secretary Bill Crouch said Monday during the governor’s virtual briefing that the agency is cooperating with the investigation. He said the state struggles to have “adequate placements” for people with disabilities in community settings.

“I’ve talked for several years now about trying to make sure we have adequate placements for individuals in our psychiatric hospitals,” Crouch said. “I’ve said numerous times on this call and before the legislature that no one should live in a psychiatric hospital that shouldn’t have to. We’re looking at making sure we can move folks to an appropriate level of care.”

In response to the federal probe, DHHR spokeswoman Allison Adler said in an email, “The DHHR does not tolerate discrimination of any kind, and works diligently to prevent discrimination from occurring in any service, program or activity which is administered by the agency.”

West Virginia Public Broadcasting reported last month that Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, had asked Gov. Jim Justice to launch an independent investigation into DHHR’s treatment of people with disabilities.

Blair’s letter cited multiple examples of what he called abuse under DHHR’s watch, including people with disabilities being strangled, being forced to use the bathroom outside and dying from inappropriate nutrition. Blair included concerns about DHHR’s transparency about its oversight of persons with disabilities, as well.

Blair’s letter also cited concerns about DHHR’s oversight of Sharpe Hospital, a psychiatric facility in Weston, and DRWV is currently investigating DHHR’s oversight of Sharpe Hospital. After the WVPB story published, Crouch defended his agency, saying, “We don’t have any tolerance with regard to patient abuse.”

Crouch told lawmakers in November that the investigation and emails by DRWV attorney Mike Folio, a former DHHR attorney, into DHHR’s practices was “bordering on harassment.”

DHHR, which operates with a $7.5 billion budget, is currently undergoing an internal restructuring in an effort to improve its communication and overall outcomes. The agency also instituted a hiring freeze.

The changes follow a $1 million outside review of the agency, which said it needed to improve its communication as the state is performing poorly in many health outcomes. Lawmakers criticized the review, performed by the McChrystal Group, for its lack of substance.

Nicholas County Program Celebrates Parents' Sobriety, Reunification With Their Kids

Family Treatment Court is an innovative program that reunifies families amid the state’s foster care crisis and the drug epidemic.

The courtroom in Nicholas County was packed Thursday as 10 parents graduated from the county’s Family Treatment Court program.

Large, framed portraits of the graduates and their respective families lined the front of the courthouse — the parents’ and kids’ smiles on display to show the room that their families were now whole.

Family Treatment Court is an innovative program that reunifies families amid the state’s foster care crisis and drug epidemic, two problems that are interwoven in West Virginia.

Under the program, parents who have completed substance use disorder treatment, and other requirements, are reunited with their children after being involved in the child welfare system.

“It’s kind of the people who have that drug problem and come into these cases and make that admission, ‘Hey this is something that is not right, and I need to improve on it,’” said Stephanie Smith, family treatment court case coordinator. She said meth has been the most common drug in the county.

“They also have to be willing — that’s kind of the biggest part,” she added.

Nicholas County is the fifth county in the state selected by the state Supreme Court of Appeals to run a grant-funded Family Treatment Court Program.

Nearly 30 people are involved in running the program, including child protective services workers and employees from the local school system.

One of the program’s goals is to minimize the time kids spend in foster care as West Virginia has the highest rate in the country of kids coming into foster care.

Twenty children were reunified with their parents following Thursday’s graduation, and many of the kids were in the courtroom for the ceremony.

Summersville resident Ally Carpenter, 27, has been drug and alcohol free for 275 days with the program. After finding housing and a job, and completing the program’s other requirements, she was reunited with her 11-month-old son and graduated from Family Treatment Court.

“Everyone here was willing to work with you one on one and whatever it took to get your child back quicker,” Carpenter said. “It’s really done a lot of good and put a lot of children back in the homes of parents who wanted them.”

Judge Stephen Callaghan fought to bring the program to his county and, since its launch in 2020, it now has 39 graduates and has reunited 63 children with their parents.

“We do it because of what you just saw in the courtroom. I’m proud to say that we’re one county and one judge, and at times this fall, we’ve had the largest family treatment court in the state,” Callaghan said.

Former graduates attended the ceremony, cheering as men and women received their certificates. Callaghan explained that it’s a community-wide effort to run the program, including finding housing, furniture, treatment and jobs for participants. Smith noted that finding housing is often the biggest barrier in the rural county.

A local business owner who has employed several of the program participants attended the graduation, and Callaghan said the tight-knit community is more than willing to give.

“It’s so easy to get people involved because all you have to do is say, ‘Do you want to help people and families affected by drugs?’ Who would say no to that?” he said.

Carpenter had a big smile as she held her son in the courtroom during her graduation. She said the program has provided her with good friends and an ongoing support system as she begins community college next month.

“I’m going to be a vet tech and then eventually hopefully become a vet,” she said.

W.Va. Faces Shortage Of OB-GYNs And Places For Them To Work

Only 18 of the state's 55 counties have hospital birthing centers.

In 2015, Nicole Nichols was pregnant with her third, a little girl. It was a pregnancy with multiple high-risk complications.

At the time, she lived in Looneyville, a small community in rural Roane County and about 19 miles from the county’s hospital. But that year and into the next, she had to drive to a hospital in Charleston for checkups, which is an hour each way.

She scheduled visits around her other kids’ school schedules, and she didn’t always have a reliable vehicle to travel while her husband worked out of town.

“I had to go just about every week. Toward the end I had to go two to three times a week for regular non stress tests because I had a pretty rough pregnancy with her,” Nichols, 31, said.

West Virginia is facing a shortage of obstetricians and places for them to work. Only 18 of its 55 counties have hospital birthing centers.

Roane County is located in the center of the state, an area that is a desert for OB-GYNs. Its local hospital once had a labor and delivery unit but it closed in 2006 due to declining use.

Nicole Nichols, 31, and her 6-year-old daughter.

Nichols went into early labor multiple times, which includes risks for mom and baby.

“I was in full panic mode in labor very early and scared I was going to lose her,” she said. “That really put her at risk having to travel an hour and an hour and a half to get that labor stopped … had I not made it there in time I don’t know where she would be.”

West Virginia has 20 birthing hospitals after St. Mary’s Hospital in Huntington closed its labor and delivery unit earlier this month. The state has one freestanding birth center.

Nationwide and in the state, births saw a slight increase in 2021 for the first time in seven years, but the overall drop in births coupled with West Virginia’s aging and declining population have made it difficult to sustain birthing centers.

The shortage means there’s a declining number of places for OB-GYNs to work, and this all leads to poorer outcomes for mothers and babies, according to Dr. Angela Cherry. She’s a family medicine physician in Harpers Ferry.

“If there’s not a birthing center there, moms are having to drive more than 30 minutes to a birthing center, which may limit the care they receive even prior to delivery,” Cherry said. “There is an increased risk of having more complications … if they have less prenatal care.”

Cherry said that while telehealth could help fill in the gaps for prenatal care, the state’s internet gaps keep it from being an option for all pregnant women.

West Virginia has some of the country’s worst birthing outcomes, including its rate of infant deaths and preterm births, which can cause a number of serious complications like breathing problems or heart issues.

The state is also having an increase of mothers dying in childbirth, which is connected to the state’s drug epidemic.

“What we’ve seen is those women are just not getting care,” she said.

Cherry presented these concerns to lawmakers in November during legislative interim meetings.

West Virginia isn’t the only state struggling; there’s a national shortage of OB-GYNs.

Cherry said the state’s rural towns struggle to attract OB-GYNs because they’re too far from hospitals and lack local economy. West Virginia University School of Medicine offers a fellowship program that trains family medicine doctors to perform cesarean deliveries, or C-sections, in rural areas that don’t have a birthing hospital and increase obstetrical care. But, Cherry said the program has struggled to place program graduates in West Virginia towns, and those doctors choose to practice in rural communities in other states.

The state could also struggle to recruit OB-GYNs following its recent abortion law, which is one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the country.

Nationally, doctors and a health care recruiting firm have said states with restrictive abortion measures have trouble recruiting OB-GYNs because doctors fear they could be prosecuted for health care decisions.

State Sen. Hannah Geffert, D-Berkeley, said her area is struggling to recruit OB-GYNs. During a presentation on maternal health, she asked Dr. David Didden with the state Office of Maternal, Child and Family Health if the abortion law would further impact recruitment.

Didden responded, “I think we can send the message that we are in support of reproductive health for women, and that this is a promising place to come and practice medicine. But, it’s a tough sell and it’s not just in medicine … We are going to continue to establish best practices and standards of care, and I hope we’ll be able to convince more providers that this is a good place to practice medicine.”

Nichols’ daughter is now six years old and thriving, and the family has moved from Roane County.

She hopes state leaders will focus on bringing OB-GYNs to rural areas as she knows other mothers from Roane who have struggled to get necessary appointments for mother and baby due to travel distance, money and transportation challenges.

“For people who can’t get to Charleston, it’s a lot easier for them to find a ride that’s 10 to 20 minutes compared to an hour or hour and half,” Nichols said.