Health

December 14, 2019

What follows is an Ohio Valley family’s story about their child’s struggle with mental illness. To protect the anonymity of their underage child, I have written it in my own words, using gender-neutral pronouns...

Adolescent Mental Illness (Part 1): Health Issues on the Rise

December 13, 2019

The need for mental health care and awareness is a growing problem in our state and the Ohio Valley. Now, with the closure of Ohio Valley Medical Center, Hillcrest and the Robert C. Byrd Child & Adolescent ...

Long Haul: Police, Mental Health Pros Grapple With OVMC Closure

Nora Edinger

November 12, 2019

Editor’s note: As part of ongoing coverage of the fallout from regional hospital closures, Weelunk looks today at what is happening to some of the most vulnerable patients who used to come through the doors at ...

Hope and Healing: Serenity Hills Life Center Offers New Recovery Option

October 30, 2019

“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.” — Anne Lamott All Sharon Travis was...

Hide and Seek: OV Docs, Patients Trying to Find New Normal

Nora Edinger

October 23, 2019

Editor’s note: Following the sudden closures of Ohio Valley Medical Center and East Ohio Regional Hospital in recent weeks, more than 1,200 health care workers are on the move. From dietary staff to surgeons, t...

PROFILES IN PERSEVERANCE: Meet Susan Hagan

October 2, 2019

Editor's note: In this series, Weelunk readers will meet their neighbors who are successfully navigating the road of recovery. Like any road trip, recovery has stretches of smooth highway as well as the occasio...

Finding Peace in a Sanctuary of Salt

September 25, 2019

Editor’s note: Wellness — we all need it. Today, allow writer Laura Jackson Roberts to share a salt sanctuary with you. It’s hard to write a story when you slept through most of the intervi...

A Thrive Test-Run: Everything You Wanted to Know But Were Afraid to Try

September 18, 2019

Editor's note: Wellness — we all need it. Today, allow writer Laura Jackson Roberts to take you along with her to Thrive. Next week, she'll share a salt sanctuary with you. Unless you live under a rock, you...

River Valley Health Foundation Helps Citizens Access Better Health Care

September 17, 2019

If you have ever found yourself alone and facing a critical health diagnosis, you know firsthand how difficult it can be to navigate the maze of treatments, procedures and appointments. Such challenges are what...

PROFILES IN PERSEVERANCE: Meet Mary Hess

August 20, 2019

Editor's note: In this series, Weelunk readers will meet their neighbors who are successfully navigating the road of recovery. Like any road trip, recovery has stretches of smooth highway as well as the occasio...

PROFILES IN PERSEVERANCE: Meet ‘Nancy Jane’ — Sober for Over Half a Century

August 6, 2019

Editor’s note: In this series, Weelunk readers will meet their neighbors who are successfully navigating the road of recovery. Like any road trip, recovery has stretches of smooth highway as well as the occasi...

PETROCHEMICALS AND THE OHIO VALLEY: Part 2 — Health Effects of Cracker Plants

August 2, 2019

Editor’s note: On July 16, the Ohio County Public Library hosted two experts at its Lunch with Books series. Dr. Matthew Mehalik, Ph.D., and Dr. Ned Ketyer, M.D., spoke to a crowd of over 100 about the environm...

PETROCHEMICALS AND THE OHIO VALLEY: Part 1 — Environmental Effects of Cracker Plants

July 26, 2019

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Editor's note: On July 16, the Ohio County Public Library hosted two experts at its Lunch with Books series. Dr. Matthew Mehalik, Ph.D., and Dr. Ned Ketyer, M.D., spoke to a crowd of over 100 about the environm...

The Invisible Epidemic: Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome

Christina Fisanick

July 23, 2019

Editor's note: The goal of our Our Hope in Recovery series is to shed light on various diseases, conditions and ailments, in an attempt to help others who are struggling. I was 27 years old and halfway throu...

Happy Goat Yoga-Small Business Series

Jeremy Morris

July 9, 2019

Editor's Note: This video is part of a Weelunk series focused on small businesses that have recently launched in the Friendly City. Thank you to AT&T for sponsoring this series. ...

Phyllis Sigal

June 10, 2019

WEEasked some simple questions — and your neighbors, friends, co-workers, acquaintances, even some strangers, answered. Get to know them a little bit better with our fun series, “WEEasked.” Look for it a couple...

Industry Check-Up: Hospitals Battling for Turf

Nora Edinger

June 3, 2019

A spanking-new Buck Rogers façade or a hospital acquisition here. A federal lawsuit alleging doctor kickbacks there. Full-blown for-profit status or intense marketing pretty much everywhere. Sorting out what...

Second Annual Conference to Shed Light on Mental Illness

May 31, 2019

If there’s one word that describes Amy Gamble, the executive director of the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) Greater Wheeling, it’s open. She’s dedicated her life to mental health awareness, and thr...

Tick-Borne Disease: Fact, Fiction and Prevention

May 3, 2019

The other day I went into the woods to dig up some ramps. I wore socks and long pants as I crouched in the leaf litter. Later, I felt something on my stomach. It was a tick, moving as fast as it could toward my...

Perspective Is Everything: Living with Multiple Sclerosis

March 15, 2019

Editor's note: In this series, we’ll talk to locals who struggle with autoimmune disease and share their stories. Below, Ohio Valley resident Michele Meeks shares her experiences with Multiple Sclerosis. WHA...

Bike Share Program Coming to Wheeling

Provided

February 25, 2019

Residents and visitors alike will soon have access to a new feature in the community that will enhance recreational and wellness opportunities. Launching in the spring, Wheeling will be home to West Virginia’s ...

Exhibit Explores Therapeutic Power of the Creative Process

Misty Klug

February 23, 2019

When Angelo Merendino’s wife Jennifer was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 36, he documented her battle through photographs to raise awareness about the day-to-day struggles they faced. When Angela...

Health Department Works to ‘Reduce Harm’ Among Drug Users

February 5, 2019

To those not suffering from substance use disorder, the solution to the current opioid epidemic seems perfectly obvious — users should pull themselves up by their proverbial bootstraps, kick their addictions co...

Pennies From Heaven … Thanks to Kenny?

January 16, 2019

Call it karma, or cause and effect, or the result of living by the Golden Rule. However you label it, good things often come to good people. That was certainly the case this week when Project HOPE received a...

Drumming Up Better Health

January 8, 2019

“My goal is to help at least one person every day to be positive and focused on their health,” says Kyle Lewis, co-owner of the Healthy Vibes for You nutrition club at 2137 Market St. in the Centre Market area ...

Recovery Center Puts the UNITY in CommUNITY

January 2, 2019

“People are making positive choices every single day when they walk through our doors,” says Mary Hess, executive director of the Unity Center in Benwood. The Unity Center is a place of community, support and e...

‘Shaking the Family Tree’: A Recovering Alcoholic’s Memoir

Provided

December 31, 2018

Editor's Note: Dallas H is the author of “Shaking the Family Tree,” an anonymous personal memoir/poetry offering of a recovering alcoholic. Interlaced with relative poetry, it addresses the ramifications of the...

Recovery Coach Certification Now Offered Locally

December 12, 2018

“Transformed people transform people.” Those words coined by spiritual author Richard Rohr are the motto of the Center for Addiction Recovery Training’s Recovery Coach Academy, now being offered locally. ...

All Things Under the Rainbow — A Discussion and Support Group

November 20, 2018

LGBTQ+ friends and neighbors, meet Heather Sexton, CT (counselor trainee). Heather, a wife, mom and native of eastern Kentucky, has relocated to Wheeling and is finishing her master's degree in counseling. Once...

Lupus: Cruel and Hard to Diagnose

October 23, 2018

In this series, we’ll talk to locals who struggle with autoimmune disease and share their stories. Below, Ohio Valley residents Ashley Suder and Allison Stoner open up about their experiences with lupus. Wha...

Angela Was ‘More Than Her Addiction’

Phyllis Sigal

October 5, 2018

There's a line in the song “Wait for It” from the musical “Hamilton” — “Love doesn’t discriminate between the sinners and the saints. It takes and it takes and it takes.” The same can be said for addiction. _...

HOPE for the Homeless — Street Medicine Team Cares for Wheeling’s Most Vulnerable

October 3, 2018

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Imagine that you’ve just had your leg amputated. It’s an emotionally devastating and life-altering event that will change the way you go about your daily routine. Staying mobile, performing simple self-care and...

‘Recovery Boys’ Screening Launches Community Discussion on Addiction

September 26, 2018

As a mom myself, my heart kept breaking for their mamas — the mothers of these four young men. Jeff, Adam, Ryan and Rush are profiled in “Recovery Boys,” a Netflix film depicting the struggles of recovery in We...

September 18, 2018

“Sometimes, the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws.” – Barbara Kingsolver No mother plans to raise a child who struggles with substance use disorder; that is not among the hopes and dreams o...

The Painful Fat Disease: Lipedema

Christina Fisanick

September 12, 2018

When I learned I had lipedema, I cried. Hours later I was still crying. Thankfully, I was able to regain control over my thoughts, but I still struggle with depression associated with this progressive, painful ...

Hope and Community in Abundant Supply at Lazarus House, Mary & Martha House

September 10, 2018

Pat Condron, co-founder and executive director of Lazarus House and Mary & Martha House, believes that addiction is a “disease of isolation.” Recovery, he has come to learn, is best achieved in a setting of...

Aromatherapy: Olfaction and the Opioid Crisis

Marni Reven

September 2, 2018

“Smells are surer than sights or sounds to make your heartstrings crack.” — Rudyard Kipling Few would argue that a whiff of fresh coffee or of an orange being peeled evokes swift reactions and emotions....

Judge Tells Teens: Keep Your Brain Off Drugs and Alcohol

Phyllis Sigal

August 31, 2018

“Don’t do alcohol or marijuana until you’re 25.” If Magistrate Judge James E. Seibert has one piece of advice for teens, that is it. With the caveat … “And then, only in moderation.” When he speaks to ...

SAY VEGGIES! Grow OV Celebrates $50,000 Grant With Community

NIck Musgrave

August 15, 2018

The inviting smells of freshly cooked food and the sound of string music filled the air at the corner of 15th and Jacob streets in East Wheeling Wednesday afternoon. Amidst shoppers picking up groceries at the ...

July 18, 2018

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In this series, we’ll talk to Ohio Valley residents who struggle with autoimmune problems and share their stories. Series author Laura Jackson Roberts opens up about living with Sjögren’s Syndrome in this inaug...

To Life! West Virginia Wellness Inc. Offers Alternatives

Kathryn Thalman

July 3, 2018

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Wheeling has always been the home of titans of commerce and innovators in business. Throughout the valley’s history, we have seen captains of industry, outstanding athletes and medical innovators make the news....

Discovering Reiki: a Path to Healing

June 18, 2018

My hands have been tingling on and off for three days. They tingle as I write. At times the sensations move down to my feet or through my arms. Three days ago, I would have Googled the symptoms, diagnosed mysel...

Conference Goal to Reduce Stigma of Mental Illness

Provided

June 14, 2018

West Liberty University recently partnered with several local organizations in presenting a two-day mental health conference at The Highlands Center that drew hundreds of participants and featured a timely appe...

The Autoimmune Sisterhood

June 12, 2018

Autoimmune disease is on the rise in our country. In decades past, the term “autoimmune” wasn’t widely known, but today, 50 million Americans live with an autoimmune disease. That number is climbing, and women ...

Conference to Shed Light on Mental Illness

Christina Fisanick

May 30, 2018

In the late 1970s, two Wisconsin mothers, Harriet Shetler and Beverly Young, had grown weary of community backlash against their sons who struggled with schizophrenia. As they worked to find care for their s...

Playground Facelifts Continue in Wheeling

May 25, 2018

Many children and parents in the city of Wheeling were pleasantly surprised during their first trip to their neighborhood playground this spring because several of the facilities were refurbished with brand new...

Playground Facelifts Continue in Wheeling

May 25, 2018

Many children and parents in the city of Wheeling were pleasantly surprised during their first trip to their neighborhood playground this spring because several of the facilities were refurbished with brand new...

Addict Now Addicted to Motherhood

May 13, 2018

This mother stole her daughter’s piggy bank and the savings inside. The paper and coins totaled about $100, enough to chase those dope-sick days away for a week, and those seven “good” days were rare for Bel...

Addict Now Addicted to Motherhood