Newsletter Articles

NC Department of Health and Human Services employees celebrated Diwali with Governor Roy Cooper and DHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen on the Dorothea Dix Campus.

With Secretary Mandy Cohen's leadership, DHHS wants to make sure the behavioral health care needs of beneficiaries are met, and that access to programs that provide people with resources.

North Carolina Medicaid, which ensures that nearly 2 million children, seniors and people with disabilities receive health care, finished the 2017 state fiscal year with more than $86 million in cash-on-hand. In addition to key improvements to the Medicaid program to combat the opioid crisis and improve overall accountability, it was the fourth straight year for Medicaid to close with savings.

With hearing loss on the rise as baby boomers enter their 60s and 70s, Governor Roy Cooper proclaimed September as Deaf Awareness Month in North Carolina during a brief ceremony Sept. 5 attended by advocates for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing at the Executive Mansion.

Governor Roy Cooper has proclaimed March 2018 as “Intellectual and Developmental Disability Awareness Month,” and in doing so commends North Carolinians living with intellectual and other developmental disabilities, as well as the organizations and agencies that work with them.

The opioid epidemic has been devastating to North Carolina, causing an average of five deaths in the state every day. North Carolina leaders, including Governor Roy Cooper, have taken steps over the past several years to address the epidemic in our state.

Eleven nurses from the Division of Public Health are among recipients of the 100 Distinguished Public Health Nurses in North Carolina award as part of the Centennial Anniversary of the Office of Public Health Nursing.

The Project SEARCH Transition to Work Program recently graduated its first group of participants.

The Governor's Awards for Excellence is the highest honor a state employee may receive. The annual award program is designed to acknowledge and express appreciation for outstanding accomplishments that do not fall entirely within the scope of normal duties, but are in the nature of a major contribution reflecting credit on the person and state service. The deadline for DHHS nominations for the North Carolina Governor's Awards for Excellence is March 12.

DHHS Office of Emergency Medical Services deployed their mobile surgical unit to St. Croix as the island recovers from two hurricanes.

Division of Public Health employees participated in the N.C. Crunch event at the division’s Six Forks campus on Oct. 10. At the stroke of noon, a group of participants gathered outside and crunched into a North Carolina grown apple to celebrate National Farm to School Month and to promote local agriculture.

Increased cooperation and cross-divisional partnerships were cited as essential to improving DHHS’ service to North Carolina families with Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Deaf-Blind children at the 2019 National Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Conference, held March 5 in Chicago.

The third annual Bringing it Home: Ending Homeless in NC conference brought together federal, state and local organizations to share best practices on ending homelessness.

In North Carolina, nearly 79,000 people sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI) in 2015. Of those, more than 1,800 died, more than 7,000 were hospitalized and nearly 70,000 were treated and released from emergency departments. For survivors, depending on the severity of a TBI, effects can include impairments related to thinking or memory, movement, vision or hearing, and to emotional functioning that may interfere with finding or keeping a job. This is an area where DHHS’ Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services (DVRS) can help.

Staff from the Elizabeth City, Washington and Wilmington unit offices of DHHS' Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services (DVRS) recently delivered supplies to the local YMCA in Bertie County to help residents who were impacted by Hurricane Isaias in early August.