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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It’s been a year since Governor Mike Pence declared a public health emergency in response to the historic HIV outbreak in Scott County, Indiana. Th...

Bought by WABE and KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio


  • Added: Apr 05, 2016
  • Length: 03:34
  • Purchases: 2
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As states try to combat the opioid drug abuse epidemic, most have created prescription drug monitoring databases used by doctors to help curtail ab...

  • Added: Mar 29, 2016
  • Length: 03:28
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Undocumented immigrants are being denied necessary dialysis treatment until the last possible moment. Patients approach death every several days un...

Bought by KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio


  • Added: Mar 02, 2016
  • Length: 03:38
  • Purchases: 1
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The rise in opioid drug abuse and gun violence have led to recent calls to overhaul the nation’s mental health care system. Meanwhile, the Excellen...

Bought by WABE


  • Added: Jan 27, 2016
  • Length: 03:24
  • Purchases: 1
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Fayette County is like a lot of other rural counties these days, where rates of injection drug abuse and of hepatitis C are on the rise, but fundin...

Bought by WABE and KRZA


  • Added: Jan 18, 2016
  • Length: 03:38
  • Purchases: 2
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Nursing students at the University of Missouri are working with refugees in their community and acting as health care guides. This is to help the r...

Bought by KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio and WAMC Northeast Public Radio


  • Added: Dec 29, 2015
  • Length: 03:31
  • Purchases: 2
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Uninsured by choice, Amish and Mennonite patients pay cash for health care and often will travel for the best price. One hospital in rural Missouri...

Bought by WABE


  • Added: Dec 10, 2015
  • Length: 03:29
  • Purchases: 1
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Congress is fighting over another spending bill this week, and a grant program aimed at preventing teen pregnancy could lose its funding. A small...

  • Added: Dec 09, 2015
  • Length: 03:25
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In the last few years, new medications have come on the market that can cure hepatitis C with a more than 90 percent success rate, but for some peo...

  • Added: Dec 08, 2015
  • Length: 03:27
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The people who grow and harvest our food risk exposure to toxic pesticides in the fields. This month the EPA published its first update to pesticid...

  • Added: Nov 24, 2015
  • Length: 03:25