Youth Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

DHHR To Distribute Federal Funding For Mental Health And Substance Use Services

In a release, the DHHR outlined seven grant programs that will support various health initiatives across the state.

More than $33 million in federal funding was awarded to the Bureau for Behavioral Health (BBH) to enhance mental health and substance use prevention services for West Virginians.

Federal funding from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) will support prevention, early intervention, treatment and recovery services across the state.

“BBH and its partners are seizing every opportunity to meet our state’s behavioral health needs,” said Dawn Cottingham-Frohna, commissioner for the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources’ (DHHR) Bureau for Behavioral Health. “With this funding, we are not only addressing the immediate needs of our communities but also investing in the long-term well-being of West Virginians.”

In a release, the DHHR outlined seven grant programs that will support various initiatives:

The Screening and Treatment for Maternal Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders program will provide $750,000 annually for five years from the Health Resources and Services Administration to expand health care provider’s capacity to screen, assess, treat and refer pregnant and postpartum women for maternal mental health and Substance Use Disorder (SUD). BBH is partnering with the West Virginia Perinatal Partnership’s Drug Free Moms and Babies Project to implement the program.
The Children’s Mental Health Initiative will provide $3,000,000 annually for four years to provide resources to improve the mental health outcomes for children and youth up to age 21, who are at risk for, or have serious emotional disturbance or serious mental illness and their families with connection to mobile crisis response and stabilization teams and other community-based behavioral health services through the 24/7 Children’s Crisis and Referral Line (844-HELP4WV).
The First Responders – Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act Grant will provide $800,000 annually for four years to build upon the Police and Peers program implemented by DHHR’s Office of Drug Control Policy. The activities will be administered by the Bluefield Police Department, Fayetteville Police Department, and the Logan County Sheriff’s Office in collaboration with Southern Highlands Community Mental Health Center, Fayette County Health Department and Logan County Health Department.
The Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness grant will distribute $300,000 annually for two years to support the system of care for adults in West Virginia and promote access to permanent housing and referral to mental health, substance abuse treatment and health care services. Grantees are located in areas of the state with the most need, based on the population of individuals experiencing homelessness, including the Greater Wheeling Coalition for the Homeless, Prestera Center, Raleigh County Community Action, the West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness and Westbrook Health Services.
The Promoting the Integration of Primary and Behavioral Health Care grant will provide $1,678,044 annually over five years to serve adults with serious mental illness who have co-occurring physical health conditions or chronic diseases and adults with SUD. Three provider partner agencies have been identified to work on this project including Seneca Health Services Inc., Southern Highlands Community Behavioral Health Center and United Summit Center, covering 16 counties in the state.
The Cooperative Agreements for States and Territories to Improve Local 988 Capacity will provide $1,251,440 annually for three years to enhance the capacity of West Virginia’s single 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline center, which is funded by BBH and operated by First Choice Services, to answer calls, chats and texts initiated in the state. In addition to this award, First Choice Services received $500,000 from Cooperative Agreements for 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline Crisis Center Follow-Up Programs and a National Chat and Text Backup Center award from Vibrant Emotional Health to help answer overflow chats and texts from more than 200 local 988 centers nationwide.
The Behavioral Health Partnership for Early Diversion of Adults and Youth will provide $330,000 annually for five years to establish or expand programs that divert youth and young adults up to age 25 with mental illness or a co-occurring disorder from the criminal or juvenile justice system to community-based mental health and SUD services.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.

First ‘Dolly Day’ To Be Held Statewide

West Virginia is preparing to celebrate its first “Dolly Day” on Aug. 9 after Gov. Jim Justice declared the holiday last year.

Last year, Dolly Parton visited Charleston to celebrate the statewide expansion of her Imagination Library Program. During the event, Gov. Jim Justice declared Aug. 9 as “Dolly Day.”

The Imagination Library program offers free books to children in the state from birth to age five, regardless of family income.

This year, Marshall University’s June Harless Center, which is a partner with the Imagination Library program, will host a read aloud event with popular books from the program.

The event will be on Wednesday, Aug. 9 at 9:30 a.m. on the Memorial Student Center Plaza on Marshall’s campus.

Partners in various locations across the state have invited families to join them for read-aloud events to celebrate the program and help spread a love of reading.

For a complete list of read-aloud events occurring across the state, please visit the program website. Please note that some events may require pre-registration or are reserved for specific age groups. You may reach out to the contact listed for each event for more information.

Hillers & Creekers

Our cultural divides start early in America – some even in childhood.

As kids, we learn where we come from and where we belong. Those divisions can really run deep. When Us & Them host Trey Kay was a kid at George Washington High School in Charleston, West Virginia, you were either a ‘hiller’ or a ‘creeker.’ The sorting followed class lines and separated kids based on their family’s income.

Trey goes back to his old neighborhood to see if others remember it the way he does. Some of their differences were subtle while others were as basic as the clothes they could afford. But what he learned from these adult conversations is that they had a lot in common. They were all self-conscious and knew that even their shoes could define them.

Another thing they all share? The pain of those 40-year-old wounds can sometimes still sting.

This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the CRC Foundation and the West Virginia Humanities Council.

Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond. You also can listen to Us & Them on WVPB Radio — tune in every fourth Thursday at 8 p.m., or listen to the encore presentation on the following Saturday at 3 p.m.

Randy Blake Thomas in 1977 as a sophomore at George Washington High School in Charleston, W.Va.

Joey Minardi in 1977 as a sophomore at George Washington High School in Charleston, W.Va.

Trey Kay in 1977 as a sophomore at George Washington High School in Charleston, W.Va.

Randy Thomas sporting a pair of his coveted Nike Cortez sneakers.

New Program Hopes To Teach Teens Conservation And Careers

A new program in Raleigh County is looking for teens interested in conservation jobs.

The program, called Beckley Youth Day Crew, is meant to teach about conservation work and careers with the National Park Service.

The program offers 16 to 18 year-olds an opportunity to gain firsthand experience with conservation initiatives and national service during the summer. Selected teens will work with mentors on projects around Beckley and New River Gorge National Park and Preserve.

The paid positions will include work on trail construction and maintenance, improvements to recreation access, and habitat improvement.

It’s a partnership between Stewards Individual Placements and Appalachian Conservation Corps.

Applications for the Beckley Youth Day Crew will be accepted on a rolling basis.

Interested teens and/or their families should visit Appalachian Conservation Corps website to apply.

'Kids Kick Opioids' Contest To End Friday

A contest deadline is approaching for West Virginia schoolchildren to raise awareness of prescription painkiller abuse.

The Kids Kick Opioids contest is open to elementary and middle school students. It can include poems, drawings, letters or anything that promotes awareness of painkiller abuse.

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey says the deadline to enter is Friday.

Students can work individually or in groups. The winning entry will be used in Morrisey’s next statewide newspaper public service advertisement. Regional winners will be displayed in the state Capitol.

Entries can be mailed to the Attorney General’s Office or sent by email.

West Virginia has by far the nation’s highest death rate from drug overdoses.

Report: W.Va. Struggles with High Rates of ‘Youth Disconnection’

A new Robert Wood Johnson Foundation report analyzed health across West Virginia, categorizing each county as “most healthy” (Jefferson County) or “least healthy” (McDowell). A variety of factors contributed to a county’s health status, such as environment, access to resources, education and youth disconnection.

Youth disconnection is defined as people ages 16-24 who are neither working or in school.

“The more a person is able to commit to a good education and obtain solid employment and have a decent income the more likely they are going to be to have a healthy life and raise a healthy family and be part of a healthy community in general,” said Jerry Spegman, one of the people who worked on the collaborative Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute report.

It found that in West Virginia, 17 percent of youths are disconnected compared to a national average of about 12 percent.

“So from a community health perspective, it’s of concern,” Spegman said. “From a public safety perspective, it’s a concern to have young people that are not engaged in either education or employment to be in the community perhaps engaging in riskier behavior than would otherwise be the case.”

Rural areas have particularly high rates of disconnected youth with an average of 20 percent, while suburban areas average about 12 percent. Successfully addressing the problem may need a multidisciplinary approach like the one used in one rural Pennsylvania community Spegman has worked with. There, he said, faith leaders, chamber of congress members, economic development and medical personnel all come together to focus on engaging local youth.

But youth disconnection is not the only factor that determines the health of a community. Across America, the rate of Americans dying prematurely is skyrocketing — most notably among younger people in rural areas.

Drug overdose was by far the single leading cause of premature death by injury in 2015 and contributed to the accelerated rise in premature death from 2014 to 2015.

Spegman said he hopes the report will empower local health leaders and policymakers to improve health outcomes in their communities especially among disconnected youth.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation, Charleston Area Medical Center and WVU Medicine.