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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When the hospital closed in rural Ellington, Missouri, a town of about 1,000, the community lost its only emergency room, too. About 700 rural comm...

Bought by WYSO


  • Added: Jan 03, 2018
  • Length: 04:00
  • Purchases: 1
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In 2015, Indiana legalized syringe exchange programs to prevent spread of HIV and hepatitis C. Yet unlike other states, which let programs continue...

  • Added: Dec 28, 2017
  • Length: 03:44
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To avoid prescribing opioid painkillers to someone who’s addicted, doctors can check their patients’ prescription history in a database. But these ...

Bought by WYSO


  • Added: Dec 13, 2017
  • Length: 03:18
  • Purchases: 1
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Since it started in Harlem in the 1980s, ballroom culture has been an anchor for LGBTQ black and Latinx communities everywhere. At each ball, conte...

Bought by WYSO and WRST-FM Oshkosh


  • Added: Dec 07, 2017
  • Length: 03:37
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Dr. Jay Joshi's patients uses telemedicine to compliment patients' opioid addiction treatment
When President Trump declared the opioid epidemic a public health emergency in late October, it triggered a regulatory change intended to make it e...

Bought by WYSO, WRST-FM Oshkosh, and KRPS


  • Added: Nov 29, 2017
  • Length: 03:20
  • Purchases: 3
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Four years ago the Pemiscot County hospital, the lone public hospital in Missouri’s poorest county, nearly closed. What’s keeping it in business to...

  • Added: Nov 22, 2017
  • Length: 03:31
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In 13 states, teens in labor cannot consent to their own health care. They can receive emergency services, but nothing considered to be elective. F...

Bought by WRST-FM Oshkosh, WAMC Northeast Public Radio, and WRST-FM Oshkosh


  • Added: Nov 15, 2017
  • Length: 03:13
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: Officer Ron Meyers in Ross County, Ohio., Credit: Seth Herald/Side Effects Public Media
After a string of fatal overdoses last year, a team of law enforcement officials and treatment experts from southern Ohio formed the Post-Overdose ...

Bought by WRST-FM Oshkosh


  • Added: Oct 16, 2017
  • Length: 03:30
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: A hygienist numbs a patient in preparation for a tooth extraction at Smiles of Hope., Credit: Marissanne Lewis-Thompson/Side Effects Public Media
In many low-income communities, especially in rural areas, charity clinics provide dental care for a population whose needs are not fully met by th...

Bought by KRPS, WRST-FM Oshkosh, and KSFR


  • Added: Oct 12, 2017
  • Length: 03:43
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: Dana Garber helps patients with transition-related medical care at the Peoria, Ill. Planned Parenthood. , Credit: Cass Herrington/Side Effects Public Media
It’s still rare to find clinics outside of major cities that offer transition-related medical care. But Planned Parenthood has started offering the...

Bought by WAMC Northeast Public Radio, WRST-FM Oshkosh, and KSFR


  • Added: Oct 12, 2017
  • Length: 03:44
  • Purchases: 3