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North Carolina is adding funding to help those battling opioid addiction

A client waits in a recovery clinic. NCDHHS is awarding nearly $16 million in grants to health care centers statewide to expand treatment for those battling opioid addiction. (AP Photo/David Dermer)

North Carolina is putting more funding toward expanding treatment for those battling opioid addiction. 

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is awarding nearly $16 million to 20 health care centers, treatment clinics, and community-based providers across the state. According to a news release, the money is aimed at expanding treatment services for those with opioid use disorder, and supporting pilot programs surrounding employment, housing, and transportation.

Among those receiving grants in the Triad are the NC Survivors Union in Greensboro and Caring Services in High Point.

The Mediation and Restorative Justice Center in Boone will receive $800,000.

Mollie Furman is a program coordinator with the center, which serves eleven counties in Western North Carolina and the High Country.

Furman says that not only will the funding help sustain existing programs, but it will also help kickstart long-desired projects.

"Our dream is to open a peer-recovery community center for Watauga that would house those programs and take on new initiatives," says Furman. 

The grant money comes from a multi-state opioid settlement.

NCDHHS says accidental drug overdose is the number one cause of accidental deaths in North Carolina and nationwide.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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