{"id":606635,"date":"2026-02-21T21:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T21:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/606635\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T21:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T21:02:12","slug":"coastal-horizons-sees-high-demand-as-state-releases-year-one-progress-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/606635\/","title":{"rendered":"Coastal Horizons sees high demand as state releases year-one progress report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) &#8211; Coastal Horizons, a substance abuse and mental health treatment center in Wilmington, is seeing approximately 700 people per day, according to its chief operating officer, as the state releases its first-year progress report on a five-year plan to overhaul mental health care statewide.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services said it is working to meet growing demand. Secretary Dev Sangvai said the state has reached a turning point.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cNorth Carolina now is willing to say we have a problem for lack of better term and we want to do something about it,\u201d Sangvai said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The General Assembly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncdhhs.gov\/news\/press-releases\/2023\/10\/10\/world-mental-health-day-nc-celebrates-historic-835m-investment-behavioral-health?mc_cid=1a66c0c7fc&amp;mc_eid=e7342edcbf\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.ncdhhs.gov\/news\/press-releases\/2023\/10\/10\/world-mental-health-day-nc-celebrates-historic-835m-investment-behavioral-health?mc_cid=1a66c0c7fc&amp;mc_eid=e7342edcbf\">appropriated nearly $1 billion<\/a> for behavioral health in 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">In year one of the five-year strategic plan, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncdhhs.gov\/documents\/dmhddsus-strategic-plan-annual-progress-report\/open?mc_cid=43353eded7&amp;mc_eid=e7342edcbf\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.ncdhhs.gov\/documents\/dmhddsus-strategic-plan-annual-progress-report\/open?mc_cid=43353eded7&amp;mc_eid=e7342edcbf\">the state opened seven new urgent care centers<\/a>, launched mobile opioid treatment programs, and expanded access to care.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cOur goal is really to make sure if someone has a behavioral health need \u2014 there are things we focus on \u2014 we want someone to have someone to contact, someone to respond, and a safe place for help,\u201d Sangvai said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Coastal Horizons received nearly $1 million, which went toward expanding infant mental health services and growing its opioid treatment program to serve nearly 1,000 people in the tri-county area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe\u2019re really building out a robust infrastructure in this area and across the state to serve people\u2019s needs,\u201d said Ryan Estes, chief operating officer at Coastal Horizons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Wilmington still lacks a 24-hour behavioral health urgent care center, and staffing community health positions remains an ongoing challenge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Ninety-seven out of 100 counties in North Carolina are considered a mental health professional shortage area \u2014 including counties in southeastern North Carolina \u2014 meaning limited providers and, in some cases, long distances to access care.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI know that there are more people that need care than our system could handle years ago \u2014 and frankly can probably still handle today \u2014 and we\u2019re trying to rise and meet that need,\u201d Estes said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The state said it is working to address both issues while continuing to measure program outcomes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 WECT. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) &#8211; Coastal Horizons, a substance abuse and mental health treatment center in Wilmington, is seeing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":606636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[36],"tags":[260847,19949,210,517,63683,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-606635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-coastal-horizons","tag-department-of-health","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-ncdhhs","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116110645806994368","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}