MEDIA ADVISORY — The 32nd annual North Carolina Paramedic Competition will take place Sunday, April 28, at the Joseph S. Koury Convention Center. Six groups from across the state will complete for the title of Top Paramedic Team, including the reigning champions Pender EMS. The competition occurs during the annual NC Emergency Medical Services Expo.
Press Releases
PRESS RELEASE — The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services today published the 2024-25 Olmstead Plan to improve community inclusion for people with disabilities. Designed in partnership with key stakeholders and people with lived experience across the state, the plan advances the work to ensure people with disabilities have the resources they need to live and thrive in the communities of their choice.
PRESS RELEASE — The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is celebrating two years of the Healthy Opportunities Pilots in North Carolina and announcing the intent to expand these life-saving services statewide. The Healthy Opportunities Pilots is a first-of-its-kind innovative program that is described as a “life changer” for thousands of North Carolina families. The program addresses people’s social needs with services like food, housing, transportation and services related to interpersonal violence and toxic stress. Preliminary research also shows a significant savings in medical costs to the state of North Carolina from Healthy Opportunities Pilots participants.
PRESS RELEASE — As part of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services’ ongoing effort to respond to the rise in syphilis and congenital syphilis cases and increase access to treatment, NC Medicaid will now cover an additional treatment for syphilis and congenital syphilis, Extencilline. This new coverage is being added to address the ongoing national shortage of Penicillin G Benzathine (Bicillin L-A), the first-line treatment for syphilis. In response to this additional resource being offered for people in North Carolina, State Health Director and NCDHHS Chief Medical Officer Dr. Elizabeth Cuervo Tilson released this statement:
PRESS RELEASE — The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services will host a live Spanish-language Cafecito and tele-town hall on Tues., Feb. 27, from 6 to 7 p.m., to discuss how to support and improve heart health as well as prevent and manage heart disease.
PRESS RELEASE — The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is launching a Community Partner Engagement Plan to ensure the voices of North Carolina communities and families continue to be at the center of the department’s work. This includes a new website and improvements to internal processes for engaging community partners, as well as groups with lived experience, to make policy change that best serves the people of the state.
PRESS RELEASE — The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is launching a new Statewide Peer Warmline on Feb. 20, 2024. The new Peer Warmline will work in tandem with the North Carolina 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by giving callers the option to speak with a Peer Support Specialist. Peer Support Specialists (or “peers”) are people living in recovery with mental illness and/or substance use disorder who provide support to others who can benefit from their lived experience. A ribbon-cutting ceremony to raise awareness for the new support line will take place on Tuesday at 9 a.m. at the Promise Resource Network respite facility in Charlotte. A media Q&A will immediately follow.
PRESS RELEASE — The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services will host a live fireside chat and tele-town hall on Tues., Feb. 20, from 6 to 7 p.m., to discuss how to support and improve heart health as well as prevent and manage heart disease.
PRESS RELEASE — The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is investing $5.5 million into the FIT Wellness program, part of the North Carolina Formerly Incarcerated Transition Program in the UNC School of Medicine, to improve reentry services for the justice-involved population. FIT Wellness delivers psychiatric and physical health care services along with connections to community supports such as housing, transportation and phones for people in the state prison system who have Serious Mental Illness.
PRESS RELEASE — The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services today released the request for proposal to hire the organization that will help manage the Children and Families Specialty Plan. The first-of-its-kind statewide health plan will ensure access to comprehensive physical and behavioral health services for Medicaid-enrolled children, youth and families served by the child welfare system. The CFSP is one initiative among many at work to improve youth behavioral health in North Carolina.