Accessing proper health care can be difficult anywhere, but in North Carolina it is especially onerous.
While everyone can be impacted by this issue, some of the most vulnerable are hit hardest. This includes jail inmates who are too sick to stand trial. Some wait hundreds of days for a bed. As of last month, more than 200 people were waiting for one.
Almost every jail in the state routinely lacks a psychiatrist on-site. Telemedicine can be available, but usually only for a few minutes per patient each week.
WFAE, with support from PBS’s"Frontline," spent a year reporting on North Carolina’s mental health crisis in a series called “Fractured.” Reporters built a database using information from every state courthouse and most jails.
On the next Charlotte Talks, we hear the stories of those affected. Their stories often go untold. We also discuss what else the reporting found and examine how the situation became so dire.
GUESTS:
Dana Miller Ervin, WFAE reporter
Susan McMahon, associate clinical professor of law at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University