Sofi Gratas covers rural health and health care for GPB. She joined GPB in June 2022 as a Report for America Corps member. Based in Macon, her coverage area includes Middle and South Georgia. Her focus is on the crisis facing rural communities that consistently rank near the bottom nationwide in health and health care. Sofi is a 2020 graduate of the University of Georgia's Grady School of Journalism. Prior to joining GPB, she worked at the Red and Black and WUGA.
State lawmakers on both sides of the aisle responsible for making decisions around health care policy seem to agree that Medicaid, and whether or not the state will choose to expand it, will be a major issue this legislative session.
Though monarchs have been migrating thousands of miles south during the winter for centuries, and the majority still do, more monarchs are staying in the southern U.S. during the winter as it gets warmer. That’s a problem.
The federal government made naloxone nasal spray available over the counter this year, and that availability is helping naloxone become a life-saving measure in shelters, jails and schools.
For people living with addiction, it’s been proven that access to evidence-based treatment and support can help keep them alive and stable. But care can be hard to come by and is only possible by combating the stigma around addiction, which is pervasive among providers, the public, and people with addiction themselves.
Some nutrition programs are at risk of funding shortfalls as politicians spar over federal spending. Supplemental nutrition programs help millions of people every year who otherwise could not afford food.