topstories Archives — Page 3 of 4 — 100 Days in Appalachia

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A Changing Climate

‘When the Water Goes Down’: Eight Months Later, Eastern Kentucky Is Still Healing

by Skylar Baker-Jordan & P.B. Cooley on February 28, 2023 Comments are Disabled

Swiftly and violently did the rivers, creeks and streams swell. As the raging water rose in the middle of a night, bursts of lightning illuminated the flood just enough that one could see the angry deluge creep ever closer to homes, to churches, to businesses. For many, it swept away […]

During his about a year-and-a-half stay at Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital in Huntington, Richard Rothermund gained 60 pounds and his health drastically declined. He died at age 40 on Dec. 17, 2021. Photos: Provided

Access To Care

For This W.Va. Family, Legislative Attention on ‘Warehousing’ People with Intellectual Disabilities at State Hospitals Is too Late

by Erin Beck on February 13, 2023 Comments are Disabled

Richard Rothermund was healthy and generally happy before he was confined to Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital in Huntington in 2020, according to Sue Rouse, his mother. There, Sue says, a lack of independence, separation from loved ones and the decline of joyful moments in his life led to the drastic deterioration […]

Ray Saul, who grew up in Bardstown, Kentucky, said there was a "touch of acceptance" in her hometown. She found more support at Western Kentucky University, where she is a student and vice president of the Queer Student Union. Photo: Austin Anthony/Daily Yonder

Youth in Appalachia

‘It Sucks That I Have to Be Scared’: Conversations with Rural LGBTQ Young People

by Skylar Baker-Jordan/The Daily Yonder on February 8, 2023 Comments are Disabled

The LGBTQ youth in rural America faces a challenging environment. Some progress has been made in the last two decades, but many still feel threatened and unwelcome in their own communities. Ray Saul spent years frightened for her safety at school. She was outed as bisexual in eighth grade in […]

A history lesson

10,000 Acres

by 100 Days in Appalachia on January 13, 2023 Comments are Disabled

Shirley Blosser likes to keep track of her ancestors. She’s descended from four families in Meigs Township, Ohio. Out of the four, it’s the Spillman clan that can be the most challenging to think about. It’s their land that was dug up for coal, reshaped and planted in grass, and […]

Brooke Parker (left), a care coordinator for the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program, is joined by Joe Solomon and Sarah Stone in Charleston, West Virginia. The program is a federal initiative that provides HIV-related services nationwide. Photo: John Raby/AP Photo

Recovery

HIV Outbreak Persists as Officials Push Back Against Containment Efforts

by Taylor Sisk on January 12, 2023 Comments are Disabled

Recovery from addiction is possible. For help, please call the free and confidential treatment referral hotline (1-800-662-HELP) or visit findtreatment.gov. Brooke Parker has spent the past two years combing riverside homeless encampments, abandoned houses, and less traveled roads to help contain a lingering HIV outbreak that has disproportionately affected those […]

Recovery

Experts: Peer Recovery Is Valuable Yet Under Sourced Resource in Addiction Treatment

by Taylor Sisk on September 22, 2022 Comments are Disabled

Recovery from addiction is possible. For help, please call the free and confidential treatment referral hotline (1-800-662-HELP) or visit findtreatment.gov. There is no simple roadmap to recovery from a substance use disorder; no fixed destination toward which to steer. Certainly, there are mile markers in recovery, and there are those […]