Health

VPR's investigative reporter Emily Corwin has been looking into the care received by young psychiatric patients in crisis. As with adults, children and adolescents can spend days in hospital emergency departments. And some parents and doctors have complained about the quality and amount of care they receive from psychiatrists while in the ER.

In Vermont, almost 700 people have received care for HIV in the last few years. Vermont Edition spoke to Roy Belcher - an epidemiologist and HIV surveillance coordinator for the state - about what life looks like for Vermonters living with the virus, what has changed and what treatments are available.

Emergency rooms are intended for short-term care. Say a child comes in with a broken bone. She'll have it set, get a cast and some pain meds, and be sent on her way with an appointment for follow-up care.

At the University of Vermont Medical Center’s emergency room, most children average less than four hours in the ER before they are sent home or admitted for specialized care.

But for children suffering from mental health emergencies, the ER is more like a windowless purgatory. It’s a secure place to wait for a bed to open up someplace else — often 150 miles away, in Brattleboro.

Vaping as it’s called - the act of sucking in flavored water vapor laced with nicotine - has become quite the rage among young people. As I walk across campus, little puffs linger in the air as students’ draw at their e-cigarette devices.

Earlier this month, Chittenden County government and public health leaders celebrated report that said the number of opioid-related overdose deaths in the county dropped by 50 percent in 2018. Statewide, overdose deaths rose two percent last year. Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger spoke with VPR about the county’s efforts to combat the opioid epidemic.  

An abortion-rights bill approved by the House of Representatives Wednesday evening wouldn’t change the legal status quo in Vermont, but the legislation nonetheless spurred a six-hour debate on the House floor.

From diapers to toothpaste and household cleaners, there are many essential items that Vermont's low-income benefits programs don’t pay for. But now there’s a place in Morristown where Lamoille County residents can pick up what they need.

Suicide is the eighth leading cause of death in Vermont, claiming more lives every year than car accidents in our state. And Vermont's young people die by suicide at one of the highest rates in the country. We're talking with doctors and researchers about effective suicide prevention. 

A lot of Vermont’s emergency medical services are on life support thanks to declining volunteers and increasing costs. For some, time has run out.

The mother of a University of Vermont student who died of hypothermia earlier this month wants to make sure other parents don't have to go through the same grieving experience. Dorothy Connor has created the "Connor Gage Never Walk Alone Fund" in her son's memory.

Vermont Edition's ad-hoc series interviewing Interesting Vermonters has led us to a 106-year-old man from Townshend, the rose-sharing traditons of a Charlotte farmer and the maple syrup-swilling (unofficial) mayor of East Dover.

Now Warren's Sue-Ellen Booher is the latest Interesting Vermonter, a hematology nurse navigator at the Cancer Center at UVM Medical Center who's also a marathon swimmer.

What do you do when you can't fall asleep? Some people meditate, others count sheep — and some pop in their headphones and listen to Sleepy, a podcast made by audio producer and Vermonter Otis Gray.

It’s been more than 45 years since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade, but as Vermont House lawmakers learned at a public hearing Wednesday evening, the debate over abortion rights is as intense as it’s ever been.

A shortage of mental health treatment beds in Vermont has forced hospital emergency rooms to provide unprecedented levels of psychiatric care in recent years. Many of those ERs have used sheriff’s deputies to supervise violent or disruptive patients, but officials now say that practice runs afoul of federal regulations.

In response to potential threats to abortion rights at the national level, the Vermont House and Senate have both introduced legislation to explicitly protect women's access to abortion as a fundamental right. While the bills have strong support, they are also facing energetic opposition. We're talking through the debate.

The Department of Health has offered free radon tests for any school in Vermont since 2001, but so far less than one third of the schools have tested their air.

Vermont schools offer free or reduced-cost meals to thousands of students every day. But how did schools become the venue to enact food policy? We're looking at school meal programs and the role they play in nutrition and education in school today.

Vermont prides itself on producing award-winning beer and spirits; the industry is part of the state's brand and boosts tourism and the economy. But we also have one of the highest rates of excessive drinking in the country. We're talking about the culture of drinking in Vermont, and how we think about alcohol in our state.