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NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — Trident Health System will break ground in December on a new freestanding behavioral health hospital. It will be the first of its kind in the Lowcountry in the last 30 years.

Currently, there are about 250 beds for mental health patients in the Lowcountry. Those beds are provided by Trident Health System, the Medical University of South Carolina and Palmetto Behavioral Health.

But, advocates for mental health say that number is not enough.

"I think it's relevant now because it has been relevant for years. It's been relevant for as long as I've been in Charleston, that we need more access to psychiatric care. As the population has grown, it has become even more relevant," said Dr. Jeffrey Culver, a psychiatrist and the medical director of behavioral health at Trident Health System.

But, mental health care goes beyond hospital beds.

"The need I think is great. It's across the full spectrum from assessment therapy, intensive treatment and treatment in a hospital based setting," said Dr. Culver.

The new behavioral health facility at Trident Health system will provide an additional 60 inpatient beds, with the ability to expand, plus more.

"The new facility will have within it a full assessment center. To asses the need for inpatient and outpatient treatment programs. We will start with 60 inpatient psychiatric beds. We plan to treat everyone from geriatric to adolescent," said Culver.

Kelly Troyer is an advocate for mental health. Her son, Alex, has a mental health condition.

"He has a developmental delay and high functioning autism," said Kelly.

Kelly said the journey to find adequate care for her son has been a challenge.

"With him growing up it was very frustrating for me to get help for him. And I thought, 'We have insurance, money, and resources. If I can't find help, then how is everyone else finding help?'" she said.

But things have improved over the years, although there is still a long way to go.

Kelly said she wants her son to be seen as a person, and not as his condition.

"When he is not okay, I want him to get treatment so he can be the best, highest functioning, tax-paying, gamer, iPhone-loving, lady-loving young man," said Troyer.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness is a resource that is available to everyone.

The nonprofit has affiliates all across the country, including in Charleston.

NAMI is able to provide advocacy for mental health patients with everything from treatment to support groups.

If you need help, call NAMI Charleston at 843-284-3091.

Steely Dan have announced a fall 2021 live dates which they're calling the "Absolutely Normal Tour '21." The tour kicks off October 8 in Miami, and includes stops in Orlando, Charlotte, Richmond, Baltimore, Philly, Morristown, Port Chester, Boston and more. All dates are listed below.

There are four nights at Morristown, NJ's Mayo Performing Arts Center on November 3, 4, 6 & 7, and there are two shows at Port Chester's Capitol Theatre on November 9 & 10. Tickets for all dates of the tour go on sale Friday, July 30 at 10 AM local time with various presale starting beforehand.

Meanwhile, Steely Dan also have a new live album on the way, Northeast Corridor: Steely Dan Live! which was recorded at New York City’s Beacon Theatre, The Met Philadelphia, & more. Frontman Donald Fagen will also release The Nightfly Live, which was recorded with the Steely Dan band. Both albums are out digitally on September 24 and physically on October 1. Pre-order here and check out the tracklists -- and listen to "Reelin' in the Years" and "I.G.Y." -- below.

Steely Dan - 2021 Tour Dates
October 5th – Miami Beach, FL @ The Fillmore Miami Beach at Jackie Gleason Theater
October 6th – Miami Beach, FL @ The Fillmore Miami Beach at Jackie Gleason Theater
October 8th – Miami Beach, FL @ The Fillmore Miami Beach at Jackie Gleason Theater
October 9th – Miami Beach, FL @ The Fillmore Miami Beach at Jackie Gleason Theater
October 12th – Orlando, FL @ Dr Phillips Center for the Performing Arts
October 13th – Orlando, FL @ Dr Phillips Center for the Performing Arts
October 15th – St. Petersburg, FL @ Duke Energy Center for the Arts – Mahaffey Theater
October 16th – St. Petersburg, FL @ Duke Energy Center for the Arts – Mahaffey Theater
October 19th – Jacksonville, FL @ Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts – Moran Theater
October 20th – North Charleston, SC @ North Charleston Performing Arts Center
October 22nd – Charlotte, NC @ Ovens Auditorium
October 23rd – Richmond, VA @ Altria Theater
October 25th – Baltimore, MD @ Hippodrome Theatre at France-Merrick Performing Arts
October 27th – Philadelphia, PA @ The Met Philadelphia
October 29th – Philadelphia, PA @ The Met Philadelphia
October 30th – Philadelphia, PA @ The Met Philadelphia
November 1st – Red Bank, NJ @ Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre at the Count Basie Center
November 3d – Morristown, NJ @ Mayo Performing Arts Center
November 4th – Morristown, NJ @ Mayo Performing Arts Center
November 6th – Morristown, NJ @ Mayo Performing Arts Center
November 7th – Morristown, NJ @ Mayo Performing Arts Center
November 9th – Port Chester, NY @ The Capitol Theatre
November 10th – Port Chester, NY @ The Capitol Theatre
November 13th – Wallingford, CT @ Toyota Oakdale Theatre
November 14th – Bethlehem, PA @ The Wind Creek Event Center
November 17th – Boston, MA @ Orpheum Theatre presented by Citizens
November 19th – Boston, MA @ Orpheum Theatre presented by Citizens
November 20th – Boston, MA @ Orpheum Theatre presented by Citizens

Northeast Corridor: Steely Dan Live! tracklist:
Disc 1:
1. Black Cow (Side A)
2. Kid Charlemagne (Side A)
3. Rikki Don't Lose That Number (Side A)
4. Hey Nineteen (Side B)
5. Any Major Dude Will Tell You (Side B)
6. Glamour Profession (Side B)

Disc 2:
1. Things I Miss the Most (Side A)
2. Aja (Side A)
3. Peg (Side A)
4. Bodhisattva (Side B)
5. Reelin' in the Years (Side B)
6. A Man Ain't Supposed to Cry (Side B)

Donald Fagen - The Nightfly Live tracklist:
1. I.G.Y (Side A)
2. Green Flower Street (Side A)
3. Ruby Baby (Side A)
4. Maxine (Side A)
5. New Frontier (Side B)
6. The Nightfly (Side B)
7. The Goodbye Look (Side B)
8. Walk Between the Raindrops (Side B)

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control will provide vaccination clinics at sites across the Lowcountry next week.

The Moderna and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) vaccines are currently available for people 18 and older, and the Pfizer vaccine is for ages 12 and up.

COVID-19 vaccinations are free. You won’t pay deductibles, co-insurance, or co-payments. Walk-ins welcome, or make an appointment for a DHEC clinic by clicking here or calling 866-365-8110.

Community Partner Vaccine ClinicsSome non-DHEC vaccine providers may ask for your insurance information or an identification card, but you are not required to provide these in order to receive your vaccine and cannot be turned away. To make your appointment with a non-DHEC clinic, register online with the provider or call the provider directly.

A preliminary $26 billion settlement was announced July 21 with Johnson & Johnson and the nation’s “Big Three” opioid distributors: AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson.

If approved, many South Carolina communities could receive payments as early as the first quarter of 2022 and together would reap as much as $350 million from the drugmakers over the next two decades.

The settlement includes 3,795 communities across the country within 48 states that the opioid epidemic has impacted. Fifty-four of those 3,795 communities are from South Carolina, including Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties. The settlement also includes the city of Charleston, North Charleston, Mount Pleasant and Summerville individually.

Joe Rice, co-founder of the Mount Pleasant law firm Motley Rice LLC, was a lead counsel for negotiations in dividing the settlement among these communities.

Rice and other counsel wanted to create a settlement that could be accepted by different local governments and would work for all of the affected communities, he wrote in a July 21 blog post.

“The agreement announced today isn’t perfect, but it is a way to provide assistance to states and subdivisions if they agree to the settlement, as well as changes in conduct for these companies regarding their handling of prescription narcotics,” Rice wrote.

The opioid distributors were accused of ignoring red flags and failing their duty to report suspicious orders and the foreseeable black market of addictive opioid drugs.

AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson have agreed to pay a total settlement amount of $21 billion over 18 years. Through the settlement, the companies would not admit any wrongdoing.

“The distributors may not admit to any wrongdoing, but they agreed to pay $21 billion,” Rice said. “You tell me if you think they’re just being generous.”

Johnson & Johnson will pay $5 billion over seven years, Rice said. The company also agreed to exit the opioid business, he said.

Rice said he supported the settlement.

“The important thing is, with the settlement, the money starts now,” Rice said. “And we need the money now. In delaying the money two to three years while trying to get a trial date, the problem is going to be so much worse. These cases are not guaranteed winners, and they are also extremely expensive.”

The settlement is subject to change and could even be scrapped altogether. States have until Aug. 21 to decide whether they will participate in the settlements. The pharmaceutical companies then have 14 days to each determine if they will proceed with the payment.

If the pharmaceutical companies proceed with the settlement, the 3,795 communities each have 120 days to decide whether they will participate in receiving their portion of the settlement. From there, the participating states and pharmaceutical companies must reaffirm their decision to proceed with the settlement.

If all communities in South Carolina were to accept the settlement, the state would receive approximately $350 million over the next two decades, Rice said. For all settlement recipients, 85 percent of the funds are restricted to abating the opioid epidemic.

“You can’t look at this as to what a small community is going to get,” he said. “These epidemics don’t stay within their zip code. We need help uniformly statewide.”

In the settlement, the companies also agree to significantly change their business operations regarding how narcotics are handled, tracked and analyzed, Rice wrote.

The settlement comes after drug dose deaths between May 2019 and 2020 increased more than 20 percent in South Carolina, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. Synthetic opioid deaths, in particular, increased about 38 percent from June 2019 to May 2020.

The increases in drug overdose deaths appear to have accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, DHEC reported.

“Now, as recently confirmed by new data from the CDC, we have an opioid crisis compounded by a global pandemic, so timing is critical to get assistance to our communities,” Rice wrote in his blog post.

Aside from the settlement, other cases continue against other opioid industry defendants, including pharmacies. This proposed settlement does not resolve these cases working through the court system.

In a separate announcement, the American Medical Association urged advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a letter dated July 16 to overhaul the CDC’s current guidelines on opioid prescriptions.

The AMA holds that current restrictions are “devastating for patients with pain” and have harmed those who suffer from cancer, sickle cell disease and other painful conditions. The group also pointed out that the nation’s current opioid epidemic is no longer being driven by prescriptions, but instead by “heroin and illicitly manufactured fentanyl, fentanyl analogs, and stimulants.”

One woman asked South Carolina senators Tuesday night to look closely at Saluda County when they begin to redraw the district lines for the chamber’s 46 members in the next month or so to reduce the number of senators who represent the county of fewer than 21,000 residents — currently three.

Another man of the Sikh faith urged senators to ensure that the nearly 150 businesses owned and operated by the Sikh and Indian communities on Decker Boulevard in northeast Columbia — known as Richland County’s international corridor — are kept together.

“So whenever you redraw those lines, please consider, keep in mind that we are immigrants. Any of you in the political process, there (is) not any member who looks like me ...,” District 22 resident Amarjit Singh, a teacher at historically Black university Benedict College, said, referring to the make up of the state Legislature. “So consider our minority rights at the same time so that we can freely be a part of this process with the other communities.”

Voters from 10 Midlands area counties were encouraged to speak Tuesday night to voice community concerns that could help senators as they begin to redraw district lines, based on the 2020 U.S. Census population figures. Not only does that data decide whether a state loses or gains a seat in the U.S. House — South Carolina did neither — but it helps indicate in part where the flow of federal dollars should go.

Roughly 30 people spoke Tuesday, most from the Columbia area, but few centered their comments on how the once-in-a-decade process could impact their community.

Most of the public who attended voiced concern about transparency and asked that, moving forward, lawmakers create an independent commission to draw the maps. Others asked senators to avoid gerrymandering districts, what can tilt districts toward certain political parties and protect incumbents — a process criticized because it lessens a voter’s chance at having a say at the ballot box.

“Protecting self interest is a powerful motivator, and few things impact the self interest of legislators more than redistricting,” said Lynn Teague with the League of Women Voters South Carolina. “This shows in our current maps. A substantial majority of South Carolina’s voters had no real choice when they voted in November 2020.”

The census won’t release updated and local population data until Aug. 16, a delay caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. But what lawmakers do know is South Carolina’s population is growing. The census showed the state grew by more than 10.7% since 2010, bumping the state’s population to more than 5.1 million people.

The hearing in Columbia Tuesday was the first of 10 hearings the special Senate panel will hold across the state, with the second on Wednesday in Sumter and the third in Rock Hill on Thursday. All meetings are scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m.

The final meeting is scheduled in Aiken County on Aug. 12.

While the Senate is responsible for redrawing their maps — based on 111,270 people per district — the House will be focused on their own and hold separate meetings. The House’s first organizational hearing will be held next Tuesday.

The two chambers will collectively work on the U.S. House districts.

To join the Senate’s email list to hear about upcoming meetings, residents can send their name, telephone number and email to redistricting@scsenate.gov. To speak at a hearing, email redistricting@scsenate.gov, call 803-212-6634 or sign up in person.

The Senate will hold nine more meetings across the state to take testimony. They are:

▪ Wednesday, July 28, Central Carolina Technical College in Sumter

For these counties: Clarendon, Kershaw, Lee, Sumter and Williamsburg

▪ Thursday, July 29, York Technical College in Rock Hill

For these counties: Cherokee, Chester, Chesterfield, Fairfield, Kershaw, Lancaster, Newberry, Union and York

▪ Monday, Aug. 2, Greenville Technical College in Greenville

For these counties: Abbeville, Anderson, Cherokee, Greenwood, Laurens, Oconee, Pickens, Spartanburg and Union

▪ Tuesday, Aug. 3, Florence-Darlington Technical College in Florence

For these counties: Chesterfield, Clarendon, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Georgetown, Horry, Lee, Marion, Marlboro, Sumter and Williamsburg

▪ Wednesday, Aug. 4, Auditorium in MacLean Hall at Technical College of the Lowcountry in Beaufort

For these counties: Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper

▪ Monday, Aug. 9, Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College in Orangeburg

For these counties: Bamberg, Barnwell, Calhoun and Orangeburg

▪ Tuesday, Aug. 10, Trident Technical College in North Charleston

For these counties: Beaufort, Berkeley, Charleston, Colleton, Dorchester, Georgetown, Hampton, Jasper and Orangeburg

▪ Wednesday, Aug. 11, Horry-Georgetown Technical College in Conway

For these counties: Dillon, Georgetown, Horry, Marion, Marlboro and Williamsburg

▪ Thursday, Aug. 12, Aiken Technical College in Graniteville

For these counties: Aiken, Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Edgefield, Hampton, Lexington, McCormick, Orangeburg and Saluda