News and Events

New Bern Ridge Center Hosts Open House

2012-02-02T15:33:26+00:00

Jan. 26, 2012— Community partners gathered at New Bern Ridge Center in Raleigh for an Open House to celebrate recent remodeling and upgrades. The center is Wake Health Services’ headquarters for children, with staff dedicated to pediatrics, children’s dentistry (with a focus on early prevention “from the first tooth”), social worker services, Medicaid eligibility, and Spanish translation. Remodeling in December 2011 included removing and repainting walls and replacing flooring throughout the entire facility.

The center also features a Young Explorers Learning Station in the lobby. The kid-sized computer station was donated by IBM (RTP) in December as part of their KidSmart Early Learning Program. Tina Wilson, IBM Corporate Affairs, was on hand to explain how the learning software is the result of a focus on bringing together technology and the world’s youngest students, especially in underserved areas, through IBM’s Community Impact Grant program.
Ms. Wilson expressed support for supplying additional systems for other Wake Health Services sites.

The Open House was attended by over two dozen community partners, including Raleigh Councilman Eugene Weeks, Wake Health & Human Services Director Ramon Rojano, and Wake County SmartStart Director of Program Coordination Anna Troutman.

“I was very impressed with the facility and all that I learned about the marvelous services you provide to the community,” said Troutman.

Dental Day Volunteers Bring Smiles

2012-01-23T16:07:35+00:00

Dec. 20, 2011—Over three dozen Franklin county residents received welcome relief from tooth pain thanks to eight local dentists and the Baptist Men’s Dental Bus, all of whom volunteered their services for a free Dental Day.

“I was amazed. It really restored my faith in humankind to see so many dentists calling to participate,” commented Tom Collie, Director of Special Projects at Volunteers in Medicine, one of the volunteer organizations. “There is such a desperate need for dental care. We hope to do this on a monthly basis.”

Area healthcare organizations referred patients who were most in need—those experiencing pain and dental disease threatening their overall health. Thirty-eight patients received extractions, fillings and cleanings. All were uninsured and received services free of charge.

“One patient was in so much pain she was not even able to eat. It was gratifying to see her come out of treatment smiling, “ said David Engel, Practice Administrator forFranklin Community Health Services.

The 2-day event occurred Friday Dec. 10 at Main Street Baptist Church and on Saturday Dec. 11 at the Franklin County Health Department. It was organized by the Franklin County Healthcare Collaborative, which includes the Franklin County Health Department, Franklin Community Health Services, Volunteers in Medicine andFranklin Regional Medical Center. Dental chairs and supplies were provided by the Baptist Men’s Dental Bus and the Franklin County Health Department.

Participating dentists came from Franklin, Wake and Granville counties and many brought staff who volunteered as dental assistants. Volunteer dentists included:

Dr. Shelly Rickert, Wake Health Services
Dr. Kenneth Evins
Dr. Harvey Yee
Dr. James Hardy
Dr. Monica Meng
Dr. Smoak Ackerman
Dr. Rex Card
Dr. Albert Kelling

Dentists who wish to volunteer for future events should contact Tom Collie at 919-497-6495 or thomtkc@aol.com. Patients must be referred by members of the Franklin County Healthcare
Collaborative.

Homeless and disabled: “I have been blessed.”

2011-12-20T22:52:23+00:00

"People say to me: 'Mr. Parker, you are always on the go!' I say 'Why aren't you? You're living, aren't you?' The more independent I am, the more I can do. The more I do for myself, the more I feel needed. My projects make me feel like an angel.

"This work ethic could easily be credited to the Entrepreneur of the Year. Instead, it belongs to one William Parker, a former 30-year commercial driver who also happens to be disabled and homeless.

After struggling with a disability that left him blind in one eye and limping, William lost everything-- his job, his house, his car. When William came into the Horizon Healthcare for the Homeless program, he was living in his truck, depressed and suffering from severe eczema. Dr. Jim Hartye, LCSW Catherine Thrash, and Outreach RN Jane Smith helped William physically and emotionally by getting his disability, his eczema and his anxiety under control. Catherine and Jane connected him to other community resources, who helped him find transitional housing and restore his disability payments.

"Without funding and faith, you are not going to survive. I didn't give up and just tried to learn new things."

You can help more people like William by donating to the Horizon Healthcare

for the Homeless program-- the ONLY healthcare for the homeless in Wake County.

"Working with the homeless brings the power of the human spirit sharply into focus..."

Dr. Jim Hartye

How does it work? Using a unique integrated healthcare model, patients receive medical attention, behavioral health counseling, free prescriptions and other support services in the same location, even at the same time. Dr. Jim Hartye, LCSW Catherine Thrash and the staff guide patients down their own unique path to healing, meeting patients where they are--physically, emotionally and spiritually.

In 2010, Horizon Healthcare for the Homeless provided $677,382 in medical care at NO CHARGE to patients. Cuts in funding have left us in urgent need of your investment to keep these turnaround stories coming.

Will you please help change a life today?

Please donate to www.WakeHealth.org

Now that William is back on his feet, though not able to drive, he is trying to help people he met during his 2 years on the street...to "pay it forward" by being an inspiration for someone who needs assistance like he did.

"In a way, I'm glad I got sick. It taught me about life. I don't take it for granted now.
I am at peace. I have been blessed."

Sleeping through the holidays

2011-12-20T22:45:38+00:00

Sleeping through the holidays

Last year around this time, my friend Sue called worried about her college-age son Charlie because he seemed to be sleeping away his whole Christmas vacation.

“At first, I thought, OK, he is just catching up because he was up many nights studying for finals. But now two weeks have gone by and he is still sleeping the day away.”

There are a number of reasons that college kids or teens could be sleeping all day. As my friend suspected, we do indeed try to “catch up” on sleep. It seems to work to a certain extent, but we can’t make up for the full amount of sleep lost.

Also, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly what it is that we “lose” when we lose sleep. So Charlie could have been studying (and partying?) very hard before the holiday break and would indeed have the tendency to sleep in.

However, it is doubtful that the catch-up period would last for weeks. Most teens and college kids require nine to nine and a half hours to feel their best. If they curtail their sleep for a few nights, they will usually have long sleep times for one to two nights. If they are chronically sleep deprived, then that period will be extended.

Of course, we must keep in the mind that sleeping for extended periods could be a sign of illness.

Diseases such as mononucleosis or depression can have an insidious onset marked by sleepiness and fatigue.

The sleepy college kid or teen might have developed a primary sleep disorder such as obstructive sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome (now known as Willis-Ekbom disease) or periodic limb movement disorder. Most importantly in this age group, narcolepsy should be considered.

Get some sleep: Is restless legs syndrome real?

The telltale feature of narcolepsy is daytime sleepiness, and it usually occurs in teens and young adults. People can have actual sleep attacks where one minute they are awake and the next they are asleep. They could be driving or talking to someone and without much warning, they fall asleep.

Many times, the sleepiness is not so dramatic; people can have profound sleepiness that impairs their quality of life, but still be able to fight off the sleep attacks.

The other hallmark symptom is cataplexy which is often confused with sleep attacks. In cataplexy, the muscles become suddenly relaxed and people can fall to the ground and seem to faint. Muscle relaxation is a feature of REM sleep and what has happened is that that one aspect of REM sleep has suddenly intruded into the wake state. Cataplexy usually occurs after a person is startled or has a sudden burst of emotion, often a good one such as suddenly finding something very funny. Narcolepsy can, and often does, occur without cataplexy.

Therefore, although the presence of cataplexy cinches the diagnosis, the absence does not rule out narcolepsy by any means. A suspicion of narcolepsy should be investigated with a sleep specialist.

Kleine-Levin Syndrome is another disorder that should be considered if the young person has recurrent episodes of sleepiness and long sleep times. It is a rare and poorly understood disorder marked not only by hypersomnia (sleepiness) but also by megaphagia (overeating) and hypersexuality (usually masturbation).

In the wake periods, there is almost always cognitive and mood disturbance. The episodes last anywhere from two days to four weeks and tend to recur at least once a year, although there is a tendency for them to abate over time. It is much more common in boys and young men than in women, although there is a well described hypersomnia syndrome that can occur during menstruation. The cause of Kleine-Levin Syndrome is unknown and none of the attempts at treatment has given consistent results.

An important question to ask is what time the teen went to sleep. Teens and young adults have a natural shift in their circadian rhythm such that they are naturally sleepy only later in the night, for example, midnight-1 am. And the lifestyle of young people often encourages an even more delayed bedtime.

Therefore, before you assume that your college kid has a sleep pathology that is making him sleep for 16 hours a day, find out when he finally finished gaming and when he stopped texting his girlfriend who is visiting her family in a time zone that is three hours behind.

It turned out that Charlie was sleeping 10 hours a day, from 4 am to 2 pm, which, although on the long side, is still considered well within normal limits. Staying up late, as I said, is a biological tendency that is reinforced and exacerbated by social norms in that age group. The pervasiveness of continual electronics use only makes matters worse.

Post by: By Lisa Shives -- Special to CNN
Filed under: Mind and body • Sleep • Stress

Holidays for the Homeless

2011-12-19T21:03:51+00:00

Please consider helping those most in need during the holidays: the patients of Wake Health’s Horizon Healthcare for the Homeless Program. YOU can help too by making an ONLINE donation. Go to WakeHealth.org/donate/Healthcare for the Homeless Fund

Any amount you are able to contribute would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance and from the staff at Wake Health Services, we hope you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Cholesterol screening recommended for 9-year-olds

2011-12-02T18:19:49+00:00

Children should all be tested for high cholesterol between ages 9 and 11 and again between 17 and 21 years of age, regardless of their family history, according to new guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The updated recommendations, aimed at fighting cardiovascular disease before it starts, came in a report released by the National Institutes of Health and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

“The more we learn about heart disease and stroke in adults, the more we know that the process begins in childhood and progresses over time,” wrote Dr. Stephen R. Daniels, chairman of the panel that reviewed the guidelines. “By working with families, we can keep kids at a lower lifetime risk and prevent more serious problems in adulthood.”

Previously, the AAP recommended only screening children who had a family history of high cholesterol and heart disease.

To make the new recommendations simpler to implement, the panel also suggested that pediatricians could use a specific type of cholesterol screening test that does not require kids to fast before getting their blood drawn.

In addition to updating cholesterol screening guidelines, the report also reinforces that children should be exclusively breast-fed through their first year of life, and recommends a diet low in saturated fat after one year. The new guidelines also encourage parents to protect their children from tobacco smoke, and encourages them to engage in physical activity - both contributing factors to heart disease later in life.

“We’re aware that pediatricians have a long list of things they have to address as part of health promotion and disease prevention. This is really an important part of what should be on that list,” Daniels wrote. “We as pediatricians really need to get kids started on the right track and keep them in as low a risk category as possible.”

Post by: Matt Sloane - CNN Medical Producer

Apple juice’s health risk: Calories, not arsenic

2011-12-02T17:51:41+00:00

It's true - apple juice can pose a risk to your health. But not necessarily from trace amounts of arsenic.

Despite the government's consideration of new limits on arsenic, nutrition experts say apple juice's real danger is to waistlines and children's teeth. Apple juice has few natural nutrients, lots of calories and, in some cases, more sugar than soda. It trains a child to like very sweet things, displaces better beverages and foods, and adds to the obesity problem, its critics say.

"It's like sugar water," said Judith Stern, a nutrition professor at the University of California, Davis, who has consulted for candy makers, as well as for Weight Watchers. "I won't let my 3-year-old grandson drink apple juice."

Many juices are fortified with vitamins, so they're not just empty calories. But that doesn't appease some nutritionists.

"If it wasn't healthy in the first place, adding vitamins doesn't make it into a health food," said Karen Ansel, a registered dietitian in New York and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. And if it causes weight gain, it's not a healthy choice, she added.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says juice can be part of a healthy diet, but its policy is blunt: "Fruit juice offers no nutritional benefit for infants younger than 6 months" and no benefits over whole fruit for older kids.

Franklin Community Health Center Reaches Out to Louisburg College

2011-11-07T16:26:02+00:00

Nov. 2nd, 2011— The staff of Franklin Community Health Services continued its tradition of community outreach by hosting a booth at the Louisburg College Health Fair. Clinical staff provided 55 health screenings consisting of blood pressure and blood glucose checks. Staff also provided consultation regarding diabetes, nutrition and the Diabetes Program offered at FCHS. While intended for students, this year’s event was open to the entire community. Attending were Medical Assistant Robyn Williams, Registered Dietitian Doris Nicholas-Mir and Practice Administrator David Engel.

Nutrition Guidelines: Harvard Unveils Healthy Eating Plate

2011-09-16T14:32:04+00:00

Posted by Sheila Ring on September 15, 2011 10:37 AM http://www.thirdage.com

Nutrition guidelines have been unveiled by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, called the Healthy Eating Plate.

Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard, says their modified version of the USDA MyPlate addresses the latter’s shortcomings, reports ABC News.

"The main thing is that MyPlate isn't specific enough to really give enough guidance," Willett said. MyPlate is a USDA resource that offers nutrition recommendations.

Symbolized by a plate with four sections -- fruits, vegetables, grains and proteins -- with an attached glass of milk, the agency says they all promote a healthy, balanced diet. Harvard's plate also includes the same four sections but with more detailed information on what foods to eat, and which ones to avoid, ABC News reports.

For instance, instead of the traditional grains section, Harvard's version includes a whole grains section.

"There's a distinction between any old grains and whole grains," Willett said. He said eating too many refined grains, e.g. white bread and white rice, can increase the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

HealthyPlate also explains what proteins are healthy -- poultry, fish, beans and nuts -- emphasizing the need for healthy fats, such as olive and canola oils, reports ABC News. As well as explaining that potatoes aren't a healthy vegetable choice, Harvard's plate replaces milk with water and recommends only one to two servings a day of low-fat milk.

"Modest dairy consumption is OK, but having a glass of milk with every meal is excessive and does not reduce the risk of osteoporosis and fractures," Willett said, ABC News reports.

The USDA has not yet responded to a request for comment.

http://www.thirdage.com/news/nutrition-guidelines-harvard-unveils-healthy-eating-plate_09-15-2011

Q & A : What You Need to Know About the Flu Vaccine

2011-09-13T22:15:10+00:00

A flu shot is your first line of defense.

A flu shot is your best protection against the flu strains that are most likely to strike this season. This vaccine will prevent, or significantly lessen, flu symptoms. For the elderly, or others of more fragile health, this could save a life. Encourage your babysitters and caregivers to get vaccinated for their own protection as well as protecting your children or loved ones. Forward this information to your office mates and church family to educate and inform them. For all of us, getting a flu shot means less misery and fewer days off from work or away from family and friends.

Please read on for answers to your questions about the flu vaccine and other ways to keep your family well this flu season.

Q: What flu viruses are included in the seasonal vaccine for 2011-2012?

A; The World Health Organization recommended that the 2011–2012 seasonal influenza vaccine contain the following three vaccine viruses:

an A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)-like virus;
an A/Perth/16/2009 (H3N2)-like virus; and
a B/Brisbane/60/2008-like virus.

These are the same viruses that were selected for the Northern Hemisphere for the 2010-2011 influenza vaccine. The vaccine can protect you from getting sick from these three viruses, or it can make your illness milder if you get a related but different influenza virus strain.

Q: Who should get a flu vaccine?

A: Officials are recommending that everyone older than 6 months get vaccinated.

It’s especially important that the following groups get vaccinated either because they are at high risk of having serious flu-related complications or because they live with or care for people at high risk for developing flu-related complications:

People with asthma
People with diabetes
Adults 65 and older
Pregnant women
People who have HIVor AIDS
People who have cancer
Children younger than 5, but especially children younger than 2 years old
Healthcare workers and caretakers (including parents)

Q: How much will it cost?

A: There is NO COST with MOST insurances. Wake Health Services’ adult patients in our Discount Fee Program pay $15 depending on their sliding fee scale. Adult patients with no insurance and who are NOT in our Discount Fee Program pay $25.

Q: When does flu season start and when is it too late to get a flu shot?

A: The timing of flu is very unpredictable and can vary from season to season. Yearly flu vaccination should begin in September or as soon as vaccine is available. Flu activity most commonly peaks in the U.S. in January or February. However, seasonal flu activity can occur as late as May.

Q: What actions can I take to protect myself and my family against the flu this season?

A: First and foremost, get the flu vaccine. In addition, the following precautions can help prevent the spread of all germs, including the flu:

Cover your mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing: Cough or sneeze into a tissue and then throw it away. Cover your cough or sneeze if you do not have a tissue. Then, clean your hands, and do so every time you cough or sneeze.

The "Happy Birthday" song helps keep your hands clean? Not exactly... yet we recommend that when you wash your hands -- with soap and warm water -- that you wash for 15 to 20 seconds. That's about the same time it takes to sing the “Happy Birthday” song twice!

Alcohol-Based Hand Wipes and Gel Sanitizers Work, Too. When soap and water are not available, alcohol-based disposable hand wipes or gel sanitizers may be used. You can find them in most supermarkets and drugstores. If using gel, rub your hands until the gel is dry. The gel doesn't need water to work; the alcohol in it kills the germs on your hands.

Source: Center for Disease Control http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/season/flu-season-2011-2012.htm"> http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/season/flu-season-2011-2012.htm