Sheila Jenkins of Macon County’s No Wrong Door for Support and Recovery joins us to discuss six years of work on filling critical gaps in mental health, substance use, and homelessness support.

From starting with a $12 bank account to managing 700 visits a month, Sheila breaks down their work building trust, navigating systemic barriers like rural transportation and housing shortages, and creating a compassionate, peer-led support system in Western North Carolina.

Some takeaways from the episode include: 

Listen in to hear our conversation! 

Marie Collins shares her experience navigating behavioral health systems across several counties in Western North Carolina over the past 10 years, highlighting several major policy opportunities, including: treating housing as part of mental health care and making it easier for providers to participate in Medicaid networks.

We also hear more about peer support specialists, the public mental health ecosystem, Housing First, yoga, and more. 

Marie is speaking from her professional and personal experience and is not speaking on behalf of Vaya Health.

Provider Mapping Tool for WNC

Maternal Health:

Perinatal Quality Collaborative of North Carolina did not receive continued funding

Planned Parenthood has regained access to federal funding for non-abortion services nationwide as of Saturday, July 4th, one year after Republicans cut its clinics off from Medicaid as part of HR1, aka “The One Big Beautiful Bill Act” in 2025.

Childcare Subsidy Floor

Cyclospora Updates

The weekly 'WNC Health Policy Brief' will be paused, but stay tuned for more long form interviews. 

This week, on the WNC Health Policy Initiative Podcast, we discuss:

In this episode, we begin to explore the mental health and substance use landscape of Western North Carolina through the experience of clinician Lissa Carter, who has worked across recovery, community mental health, education, and clinical leadership roles in Buncombe County.

We learn about her experiences with our workforce shortages and insurance barriers, and care fragmentation, alongside regional strengths like harm reduction initiatives and training pipelines. It sets up a broader discussion on how policy shapes access, retention, and outcomes in mental health care.

coming soon 

In this episode, we learn about the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP)'s Produce Prescription Program and how it overlaps as a public health strategy to improve nutrition, increase access to healthy food, and support long-term health outcomes.

By connecting healthcare providers with local farmers and markets, the program helps participants access fresh fruits and vegetables while strengthening Western North Carolina's agricultural economy.

The conversation also places Produce Prescription programs within the broader "Food Is Medicine" movement, which a growing set of interventions that includes medically tailored meals and nutrition incentives like Double SNAP at Farmers' Markets, designed to address chronic disease through food. 

The Produce Prescription Program recently received $400,000 in renewed funding from Blue Cross NC to continue and expand programming into the next year, pointing also to evidence of healthy food access as a long term cost-savings strategy for health insurance providers.

Proposed House Bill 1154, 'Expand the FarmSHARE Food Hub Program' also points to state policy that also covers the intersection between healthy food access and support for rural agricultural economies by seeking to allocate some funding to Double EBT at farmers markers.  

Recorded on 6-15-26, learn about health policy updates impacting WNC, including:

Recorded on June 8th, we talk about:

Center for Healthcare Quality & Payment Reform (CHQPR) released a report showing 5 rural hospitals in NC at immediate risk of closing, and provides an analysis of root causes.