Press Releases

Health officials from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services' Division of Public Health encourage residents and visitors to take precautions to prevent mosquito-borne illness following a death from West Nile virus infection. 

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services' Division of Public Health's Injury and Violence Prevention Branch has received $939,000 in funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to prevent overdose deaths related to prescription opioids.

Viral hepatitis affects as many as 400 million people worldwide, contributing to nearly 4,000 deaths each day.  In North Carolina, an estimated 160,000 people are infected with hepatitis C and most are unaware of their infection. 

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services awarded $5,000 grants Thursday that will allow 11 counties to train paramedics in mental health crisis intervention.

Last week, Governor Pat McCrory signed an Executive Order creating a Mental Health and Substance Use Task Force that will be jointly co-chaired by Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Aldona Wos, M.D. and North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Martin.

Because temperatures are reaching dangerous highs this time of year, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services' Division of Public Health is encouraging people with diabetes to take extra precaution to maintain healthy blood glucose levels.

More than 2,500 patients across the state may be diverted each year from hospital emergency departments to behavioral health crisis centers with help from $5,000 grants awarded to each of 11 counties and their Emergency Medical Services, announced Courtney Cantrell, PhD, Director of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services' (DHHS) Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services.

North Carolina's Department of Health and Human Services' (DHHS) State Cancer Registry is being recognized by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a Registry of Excellence for collecting complete, timely and high quality data for the 2012 diagnosis year.

The Critical Time Intervention pilot program, a part of North Carolina’s Crisis Solutions Initiative which assists adults with mental illnesses during transition periods, is planning for an expansion after receiving funding through a federal block grant, according to a Department of Health and Human Services press release.

Director Courtney Cantrell, PhD, of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services' (DHHS) Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services, announced that four Local Management Entities/Managed Care Organizations (LME/MCO) were selected to pilot Critical Time Intervention, a program that assists adults with mental illness who are going through a transition phase in their recovery process.