North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Dev Sangvai is traveling to western North Carolina to learn about recovery efforts and highlight mental health resources available to people impacted by Hurricane Helene. The Secretary will also visit a Healthy Opportunities Pilot program providing essential services to people recovering from the storm. Credentialed media are invited to attend the visit at Love and Respect Community for Recovery and Wellness in Hendersonville on June 12, 2025, at 12:45 p.m., and the visit at Caja Solidaria in Hendersonville on June 12, 2025, at 1:30 p.m. Together, Love and Respect and Caja Solidaria have served as a hub of recovery efforts following Helene.
Leaders will first give an update on the Hope4NC program, a $12.4 million investment that supports crisis outreach in 25 counties hit hardest by Helene. Trained crisis counselors have been going door-to-door to provide education, assist in recovery efforts, link people with critical behavioral health services and provide counseling where people need it most.
Love and Respect Community for Recovery and Wellness is a “no barriers” Recovery Community Organization run by peer support specialists. It has seen a significant increase in people in need of services following Hurricane Helene. The organization’s expanded location opened just before Helene and is open to anyone in the community and can help people at no cost with mental health care, Healthy Opportunities Pilot enrollment and NC Medicaid enrollment and assistance.
Hope4NC also offers a free, confidential 24/7 helpline to anyone in distress. Since Sept. 28, 2024, Hope4NC has delivered more than 11,300 individual or group counseling services and supportive contacts, more than 200,000 assessments, referrals and media outreach contacts and answered more than 7,300 helpline calls.
Additionally, NCDHHS received a generous $25 million appropriation from the North Carolina General Assembly to further support mental health crisis response in the affected areas, including support for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). Funds are being used to:
- Increase access to community- and facility-based crisis services
- Increase behavioral health service access for special populations, including deaf and hard of hearing
- Provide transitional housing for unhoused veterans
- Provide behavioral health and crisis services at rural health centers supporting uninsured people
- Provide training and trauma support to first responders, DSS workers, teachers and other helpers in the community
- Consult with providers supporting individuals with I/DD and their families
- Increase access to opioid use treatment, including opening several new mobile treatment centers and ensuring communities are supplied with Naloxone
- Increase access to peer support services
- Implement disaster preparedness training and resources for local DSS offices and crisis support resources for individuals with I/DD
What: NC Health and Human Services Secretary Dev Sangvai Visits Western NC and Highlights Mental Health Resources
Who: Dr. Dev Sangvai, Secretary, NCDHHS
Tracy Hayes, Vaya Health Area Director and CEO
Lexie Wilkins, Founder, Love and Respect Community for Recovery
Alivea Turner, Director of Operations, Love and Respect Community for Recovery
Richard Dudley, Hope4NC crisis counselor
Hope4NC participant
When: Thursday, June 12, 12:45-1:25 p.m.
Where: Love & Respect, 350 Chadwick Ave., Hendersonville, NC 28792
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After the event at Love and Respect, Secretary Sangvai will tour Caja Solidaria, a human service organization serving Henderson and Transylvania Counties that is a provider for the Healthy Opportunities Pilot (HOP) program. HOP addresses social needs by providing housing, food, transportation and interpersonal violence/toxic stress services to qualifying Medicaid members.
In just under three years, the first-of-its kind innovative program has been described as a "life changer" for thousands of North Carolina families. Healthy Opportunities proves the best way to lower health care costs and create healthier communities is to reduce the need for medical care in the first place. HOP participants are healthier and visit the emergency room less often, which reduces the total cost of needed medical care for enrollees by $85 per person, per month.
Caja Solidaria currently provides fresh food to more than 1,500 people per week in western NC.
At present, proposed House and Senate budgets put forward by the North Carolina General Assembly do not include funding for the Healthy Opportunities Pilots program’s ongoing operations or statewide scaling beyond the current fiscal year (June 30, 2025). Without funding, Healthy Opportunities Pilots will end on July 1, putting services at-risk for thousands of people in North Carolina.
What: NC Health and Human Services Secretary Dev Sangvai Highlights Importance of Healthy Opportunities Pilot program
Who: Dr. Dev Sangvai, Secretary, NCDHHS
Amy Landers, Interim Executive Director, Caja Solidaria
Participant served by Caja Solidaria
When: Thursday, June 12, 1:30-2:15 p.m.
Where: Caja Solidaria, 316 Chadwick Ave., Hendersonville, NC 28792
RSVP: Credentialed media should RSVP to news@dhhs.nc.gov if they plan to attend.