North Carolina Now; North Carolina Now Episode from 01/13/1998

It's Tuesday January 13th. Tonight this may be a bad system but these are good people. Sweeping changes in the Department of Transportation in North Carolina. Nail. Good evening everyone and welcome to this Tuesday edition of North Carolina now. News about the Department of Transportation tops our show tonight. Earlier today Governor Jim Hunt held a press conference in Raleigh to announce his appointment of former commerce secretary Norris Tolson to take over as head of the Department of Transportation. What made the announcement

before members of the press and government officials hunt said a system has evolved within the DOJ that no longer gives citizens and the taxpayers confidence in how priorities are set and decisions are made. The time has come for a dramatic overhaul of the North Carolina Department of Transportation. The most important step is new leadership. NORRIS Tolson will be the new secretary of transportation starting tomorrow. I am giving him a free hand and full authority to make sweeping changes in the leadership organisation and operations of the department. The governor has given me about 45 days to get my arms around this issue and within 45 days we will have as to today restructuring program at the OT that meets many of the government's objectives and gives us an opportunity for

a fresh start for this great department. Outgoing DOJ secretary Garland Garrett will move to the governor's office and serve as legislative liaison deputy commerce secretary Rick Carlisle will serve as acting secretary of the department. Despite its recent problems the North Carolina Department of Transportation does lead the nation in one unique program wetlands Creation Scientists estimate that North Carolina has lost at least 50 percent of its wetlands mostly due to development. However the state is hoping to become more proactive about creating preserving and restoring wetlands through its new wetlands restoration program and with the help of the North Carolina Department of Transportation. When most North Carolinians think about the Department of Transportation they generally think about the many miles of road workers create each year. But what most people don't realize is that every year North Carolina's Department of Transportation also creates thousands of acres of

wetlands. In fact most people don't even know deity has a. We have a full time staff of people that are just we're not even concerned about building highways we're just concerned about making up for the environmental impacts caused by highways. Ted Evans works at the Department of Transportation's wetland mitigation nater. We try as hard as we can during the planning phases to avoid those wetlands and then we're going to design we do all we can to minimize it. But. Just can't avoid him totally. Under state and federal law the Department of Transportation is required to replace any wetland damage you construction but it wasn't until the mid 1980s that the DOJ got serious about creating new wetlands and they quickly found wetlands construction is not an easy task. When we started this really getting serious about it. Without it there weren't any specifications you can go out in libraries and find all sorts of

specifications for how to build a road. But there was absolutely nothing for how to build a wetland. But over the years the North Carolina Dio TI has designed a process for creating wetlands that's become a national model. In fact on average I'd say that we're creating or. Enhancing or restoring about three acres of wetlands for each acre that we have to impact for the highway project. We're hoping in the next 10 years to build 20000 acres of what lands in North Carolina. This in the next two got about 8000 acres slated to go to construction with this emergent Marsh at melon Creek in Charlotte is one example of their work. Deo t Cruz built this site to make up for the wetlands lost during the construction of Charlotte's not only the upstream water is going to come through all these this Juncus grass and cat tails and and the reeds and whatnot and this side is literally acting as a filter. So this is like a water treatment plant. So far the marsh seems to be working as it keeps tires and other trash out of a

nearby creek. The rockers hope to have the same success with this site near Matthews the little Sugar Creek wetlands is located in the heart of one of Mecklenburg County busiest shopping areas right now DOJ officials are closely monitoring the water levels so that newly planted vegetation has a chance to grow. We can. Essentially control the rudder levels from the site using two different sluice gates there you see the top gate is open right now but there's a lower gate that's also open at this time. You just don't build a wetland overnight even the day that we come in here and we construct this wetland and we we grade it off and plant the plants it's going to take several years before it's considered before we would consider it a productive wetlands. You know as a biologist you learn that there we're all connected. You know there's you know that we all need each other there's a reason for all of the different habitat types and animals and so forth the plants that we have run feral is the manager for the

state's new wetlands restoration program. He says the new program will try to combine the wetland restoration efforts of state agencies like the Department of Transportation into one program. The goals of the wealth restoration program are to replace. Many of the Lost wetland functions and values such as water quality benefits flood control. I happen to have recreational activities. All of these things the wet ones provide for us. We've slowly begun to realize how important they are to us. Ferrall says the program should especially help subdivision developers who are also required to replace any wetlands they damage. Under current state and federal law with current regulatory program the department goes out and buys a piece of land wherever he can get it and replaces the well and often it's not within a context that actually gives the state or the people of North Carolina any benefit it cost the developer a lot of money. And yet we're not

getting the benefit that we should get from it. But he says under the new system that should change giving the state a chance to replenish its wetlands something Department of Transportation has been trying to do for several years. This wetland will be here forever when we create a wetland or preserve want to restore one. We will go to specific steps to in the future deed this property to an agency that's going to take care of this in perpetuity this site will never be developed it will always be a wetland and in the future the state hopes to have many more sites just like this one sites not act as a small oasis in the middle of North Carolina's rapidly growing cities. One of the interesting aspects of the wetlands restoration program is that developers and state agencies will now be able to pay into a state fund called a mitigation bank if they damage wetlands during construction. This money will then be used to purchase large pieces of wetlands that are considered to be vital to the state and our mental

health. Well coming up how your faith may soon be a new tool in fighting illness. But first let's check in with Michel Louis for a summary of the rest of the day's statewide news. Hi Mitch. Hello Shannon. Good evening everyone. Topping our news a measurable decline in school violence in the Tarheel State during the past year. North Carolina schools reported a total of eight thousand one hundred forty one acts of violence during the 1997 school year. That represents a drop of 32 incidents from the previous year and the first overall decline in violent attacks in four years. Drug possession which is considered a violent act under school reporting procedures topped the list of the three most frequent violent acts weapons possession was a close second assault on school employees was third on the list. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Ward says while the decrease is good news more has to be done to reduce school violence even further. Senator Locke their cloth has officially filed to run for a second term and he appears to be making tax reform a major issue in his re-election bid fair KOLOFF told

reporters that he has never voted for a tax increase during his term and that he wants to abolish the IRS and create a simpler tax code. It was thought that fair cloth would have no party opposition but the senator was thrown into an unexpected primary last week when political newcomer Leonard Plyler of states will file for the Republican nomination. Heavy rains are being blamed for a major sewage spill in the town of Faison. An estimated half million gallons of diluted waste poured from the town's sewage system over a recent three day period. This village marks the fifth time the Faison system has overflowed since October 1996. The sewage spill reportedly flowed into woods and workers with the State Division of water quality are testing a nearby creek for contamination waters from the creek eventually run into the northeast Cape Fear River. State records show that 60 municipal water systems are violating their pollution permits or have been warned that they soon may overload treatment plants. And now for a look at tomorrow's weather. Cooler temperatures will spread across the state bringing more winter like

conditions for Wednesday. Highs will range from the mid 30s in the mountains to mid 40s and most of the rest of the state. Afternoon rain is also part of tomorrow's forecast. And in business news the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research says economic imbalance poses the real threat of dual economies and the Tar Heel State. A study of the latest economic statistics finds per capita income is just over $17000 in rural counties compared to nearly $21000 an urban counties according to the center metropolitan areas recorded a ten point nine percent increase in total employment. Nearly double that for non metro areas. The Center suggests rural areas build diversified economies aggressively improve infrastructure and think regionally. And now for a look at what happened on Wall Street today. North

Carolina is becoming a retirement haven and with this increase in the number of retirees living here the services provided by the North Carolina Department of Aging are becoming more critical than ever. Here to share with us more information on the services offered through the division of aging is the division's new director caring the Tovey. And thank you so much for joining us tonight. Graduations on your new job. Thank you Shanna. You have been the division's director since the first of October. How has the transition gone. Well I have learned so much in one month is just unbelievable. I have been now in four different areas of the state to

meet with the local Triple-A agencies now explain what they are in a minute. And I've been to some of the programs I've been to a nutrition side I've been to a legislative hearing. On the aging and what's going on in this state in regard to the aging is just remarkable. Let's talk a little bit about this when we're talking about the division of aging how many people do you serve on a yearly basis. Well there are 30 of us who work there. And last year over 64 thousand people receive services through our division. Most of them were in what we call the home and community block grant which is in-home health services aides that go into the home to deliver little services to somebody to enable them to stay there rather than having to go in to an institution. We do Meals on Wheels congregate nutrition programs. We do the ombudsman

program where you have a concern about an older person's treatment either in his own home or in. A nursing home facility you can call it and someone will look into that situation and give you a call back. And if necessary take action while serving 65000 people mean with with 30 people on staff that just sounds amazing. Well it is because that's not how it actually works. We're out of the office in Raleigh. We do the fiscal maintenance of these programs. We take care of the all the reporting requirements we do the training we do the monitoring and we make sure that the money gets out to the local level. And there it is distributed through the area agencies on Aging. There are 18 of them. They are mostly housed in the Council of Governments and they are at the local level and they make the contracts with the providers

who actually go into the into the homes. So this is a definitely a pyramid will kind of bureaucracy if you will. It's a small office at the top lots of service at the bottom. You talk just a minute ago about some of those services as you come into this new position what are your own goals for the agency. Well the agency has got to get on top of what we call the. Baby Boomer the boomers who are aging who just turned 50 the oldest group of baby boomers have just turned 50. That means in 10 years they're turning 60. It is a bolt of population this is not just in North Carolina it's all over the country that is going to completely change the demographics of our country. And right now our our money our dollars are so stretched to provide to a very small proportion of the population we're very concerned that when this baby boomer

crest hits the state of North Carolina that there will not be the resources there to really provide a and enjoyable lives and kind of life. And when we're talking about this quest how many people can we expect here in North Carolina at the top of this question we're going to be needing services from the division of aging. Well we. We don't know that number. We're certainly going to try to educate the population so that many more people will be more reliant on their own finances their own funds they'll be ready for this than has happened currently. But right now about 12 percent of the population in North Carolina is age 65 and over. In 20 20 we project that over 20 percent of the population will be 65 and older and a large number of those people will be 85 and over. This is our fastest growing

segment of the elderly. Wow. So this is this is gives you food for thought but it really doesn't when you combine that with the number of people who are just finding North Carolina to be an incredibly desirable place to retire. How does that impact services to the elderly. Well. Several ways one of the services we work with our senior centers they are hubs of activity not only fun and games and recreation and line dancing and all the kinds of things that go on in there but they are also nutrition sites they are also health promotion and health screening facilities they are physical fitness they are wellness centers. We're going to see money many more people taking advantage of those services and and giving themselves the outlets and the entrance into their communities through the senior centers that's one area. Another is that we're going to see many more people involved in retirement communities per

se. We call that the continuum of care. They start out in in a community that's sort of geared toward adults and then they can get in-home services to help them with very simple tasks that. Allow them to stay in their own apartment or their own home than you know as life goes on and their needs increase they move into more and more care kind of situations. I think we'll see many more of these communities evolving but there are lots of people who cannot afford that kind of care. And so our agency will be specifically involved in making sure that those people receive services to well care and get to have it looks like you have got a enormous job ahead of him and we appreciate you coming tonight and sharing some of this information with us. Well you're certainly welcome. If you'd like to learn more about the services provided by the North Carolina Division of aging You can call 9 1 9 7 3 3 3 9 8 3.

Studies have shown that many things contribute to our health including good nutrition exercise and a healthy lifestyle. But Maureen lumber reports there is another element which makes a big impact on our well-being. It's called the faith factor. Thousands of North Carolinians receive some sort of medical treatment. Often it's for minor illnesses or injuries but sometimes a serious life threatening disease which can involve treatments or surgery. And physicians must use a variety of resources to treat their patients. It's

normal practice for a doctor to take a patient's medical history as a tool in determining a plan of treatment. But more and more doctors are also taking a spiritual history trying to understand the impact that their patients religious beliefs may have on their health. Dr. Harold Koh niggas director of Duke University's Center for the Study of Religion Spirituality and Health. He is one of the country's most eminent researchers in this area. Often physicians like Dr. Kinch Mader refer patients to him for change or small to the depressive symptoms anxiety in attention for sleep reduced difficulty getting going in the morning so she has been doing a whole lot in fact she stopped going to church in the real word about that. So I want to get your advice on her. Had she been an active church member in the past yes. And that had been a source of comfort to her probably Koenig's research indicates there is a strong link between faith and health.

The studies have shown that people who are more involved in their religious community those who have a strong personal religious faith and belief in God. But those people seem to have better physical and mental health. Many people who are in the hospital who have serious medical and health conditions use their religious faith as a way of coping or dealing with the stress of their condition. That is certainly the case for Paul Henson. In November 1997 he received a bone marrow transplant at USC hospitals in Chapel Hill and is now undergoing outpatient treatment. Henson told chaplain Meredith Bratcher how his faith has helped him. But you mentioned a minute ago that you felt that God was with you in the process. People are even there we see him apparently as we were praying for you. Right and I would

speculate. There are some golfers will say mithril situation as a hospital chaplain Bratcher says she tries to help patients use those feelings to cope and to heal. When I talk with people we try to name all those pieces off. What is your sense of purpose that's going to keep you going through a very hard time. So in a broad where I think faith is a part of all the healing energy that a person mobilizes Dr. Tom Shea is in charge of the bone marrow transplant unit at USC hospital because of the nature of his specialty. His patients are often very sick facing life threatening conditions. It's pretty clear that the people who tend to have a stronger faith historically. I think more often than not

tend to be able to tolerate what's going on a little bit better. You know sometimes it doesn't necessarily take a religious sort of you know connotation I mean it may be a strong family it may be a strong belief in whatever they're you know in some ways even their you know extended family their job whatever but I think the people that have a support structure like that and oftentimes it is their church or their synagogue that is what they rely on. And I think it does make a difference. Studies from medical centers around the country seem to verify this connection. Evidence is mounting that people who have strong faith recover from illness and surgery faster don't require as many medical services and experience less depression or anxiety. And in the current climate of concern about rising medical costs this factor also has a big financial impact on the health care industry. I don't think there's any question that if religious beliefs practices and participation help to prevent physical or mental health

problems and perhaps even help people to recover faster from them with fewer complications I think this has to have some implications in terms of the cost of health care. Learning how to address spiritual issues or concerns has not traditionally been a part of medical school training. But that too is changing. Duke Medical Center offers an elective course for its students while a course on alternative medicine is open to medical students at USC Chapel Hill. The faith factor is being recognized as a major health variable and is often seen as a complement to traditional medical therapies because there are so many people for whom religion is such an important part of their life and in particular such an important part of the way that they cope with their physical health and physical illness. We think that doctors being aware of the important role in patients lives is a very important and really a necessary part of clinical

whole person medicine. I think a person's faith has little filaments that spread out into almost every area of a person's life. So that whether I manifest my faith through my relationships with other people or whether it's with solitary prayer time or face time with my Holy Scriptures or if it's a meditation or it's going out and doing having relationships with people outside my normal circle of friends outreach all those ways or ways of expressing and entering into my face so that in all those ways people contribute to their healing process. Currently about one fourth of all medical schools in the United States have either an elective or required class in this area. Last year Wake Forest University School of Medicine received a national grant to develop a mandatory course in medicine and spirituality which may serve as a model for all the medical schools. Well that's it for tonight show please join us again tomorrow night when our guest will be Dr. Edward

Levitt a Duke University researcher who's published the first scientific result showing that exposure to the talk's organism hysteria can cause learning deficits in laboratory animals. He'll be here to explain how his conclusions may affect humans who come into contact with this theory. Have a great evening everyone we'll see you again tomorrow night.