Side Effects Public Media

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We're a health news initiative exploring the impacts of place, policy and economics on America's health. Our reporting sheds light on root causes of community-wide health problems—from chronic disease, to mental health and addiction, to infant mortality—and on new efforts to solve them.

We are headquartered at WFYI Public Media in Indianapolis, and work in partnership with KBIA in Columbia, Missouri; St. Louis Public Radio; Illinois Public Media in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois; WNIN in Evansville, Indiana; and WOSU Public Media, in Columbus, Ohio. We also work with contributing reporters from other public radio stations around the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. We're intent on telling stories from under-covered communities and hidden-away places.

Series

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3 Pieces

In rural America, older people face more health issues, like chronic illness, mental illness and complications from loneliness and isolation. This series looks into those issues in rural Kentucky.

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0 Pieces

An unusual court in Columbus, Ohio, offers a therapeutic approach instead of a punitive one to sex workers. In this two-part series, we hear the story of Stephanie Rollins' recovery from two decades of addiction and sex work, and the judge who offered her a new path for her life.

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4 Pieces

This series explores the health needs and concerns of foster children.

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2 Pieces

In 2007, 12,000 inmates with mental illness sued the Illinois Department of Corrections, alleging the agency punishes inmates with mental illness instead of properly treating them. A settlement was reached in 2016, when the state agreed to revamp mental health care and provide better treatment. But a federal judge has ruled that care remains “grossly insufficient” and “extremely poor.”

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4 Pieces

In the grips of an opioid addiction epidemic, many communities are increasing efforts to prevent overdose or stem the easy access to drugs. Meanwhile, long-term recovery for many people struggling with drug or alcohol addiction remains elusive. Despite advances, addiction has strikingly high relapse rates. This series explores obstacles that hold people back from treatment and new approaches to care that can help people stay well in the long term

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3 Pieces

Sick is a podcast about the things that can happen to our bodies—and how we respond.

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50 Pieces

Our health journalism collaborative explores the impacts of place, policy and economics on Americans' health.

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5 Pieces

Personal experiences of people in recovery shared at a live storytelling event in Indianapolis.


Pieces

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Insurance companies set rules that sometime make patients go for days without opioid addiction medicine. These rules are especially tough on pregna...

Bought by WAMC Northeast Public Radio


  • Added: Jul 26, 2017
  • Length: 03:30
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Earl Bullington, advisor for Focus Bank, which rescued the struggling Pemiscot County hospital in 2013. The pictures on his wall depict the farmland in Pemiscot County, Missouri., Credit: Bram Sable-Smith/Side Effects Public Media
Dwindling populations put hospitals in rural areas in a catch-22 situation. Their communities rely on the institutions, but aren’t big enough to su...

  • Added: Jul 19, 2017
  • Length: 03:33
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A new study finds where there are dense clusters of tobacco retailers, there’s a higher rate of smoking. Those clusters are mostly in lower-income ...

  • Added: Jun 29, 2017
  • Length: 03:42
Caption: Cara Stewart and Emily Beauregard, Credit: Sam Horton/Side Effects
As Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell works to drum up votes for his health care bill in Congress, people in his home state worry about what they cou...

  • Added: Jun 28, 2017
  • Length: 03:26
Caption: Tony Twitty, a St. Louis mechanic, purchased coverage for himself and his son on Healthcare.gov. He told St. Louis Public Radio last year that before the Affordable Care Act, buying coverage on his own was unaffordable., Credit: Durrie Bouscaren
Across the country, the clock is ticking down on filing deadlines for companies who want to offer plans on the healthcare.gov marketplace. Several ...

  • Added: Jun 21, 2017
  • Length: 04:13
Caption: A rape kit (pictured) is used to collect evidence after a sexual assault. How well the kit is completed matters in a prosecution., Credit: Esther Honig/Side Effects Public Media
In Ohio, sexual assault nurse examiners (SANE nurses) can help administer rape kits to victims and bring perpetrators to justice. But in rural area...

Bought by WRST-FM Oshkosh and WAMC Northeast Public Radio


  • Added: Jun 20, 2017
  • Length: 03:37
  • Purchases: 2
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Under the GOP health plan, 14 million fewer Americans would be insured through Medicaid over the next 10 years. That’s a problem for small rural ho...

  • Added: Jun 19, 2017
  • Length: 03:18
Caption: Steve McCaffrey in his office. , Credit: Jake Harper / Side Effects Public Media
The maker of one medical treatment for opioid abuse has successfully lobbied statehouses around the country to pass policies that tilt addiction tr...

Bought by KRZA


  • Added: Jun 16, 2017
  • Length: 07:20
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Darvin Bentlage, a cattle farmer in Barton County, Mo., was uninusred before the ACA and worries he could be again under the GOP replacement plan., Credit: Screenshot/Department of Health and Human Services
The Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act would change health care in many ways. And rural communities have a lot on the line. Reporte...

Bought by KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio


  • Added: Mar 21, 2017
  • Length: 03:34
  • Purchases: 1
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America’s 21 million diabetics spend close to $4 billion dollars every year on test strips. Because of their high price, though — a single strip ca...

Bought by KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio and 90.1 WFYI Public Radio


  • Added: Jan 31, 2017
  • Length: 03:22
  • Purchases: 2