Health

Starting one week from today, National Diabetes Month will be observed in Bethel. Last night, Bethel City Council approved an official proclamation drafted by the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation. Most of the YKHC Diabetes Department team, led by Clinician Anna Harper, came to the Council meeting.

This year’s Alaska Vital Statistics report, released by the State Department of Health and Social Services, paints our region as a place where more children are born to teenage mothers than the state average, and more people die younger from accidents, alcohol, gunshots, and suicide than is normal for the rest of Alaska.

Bethel’s local homeless shelter is now homeless itself. The Winter House is trying to find the right place to house its residents, according to board president Jon Cochrane.

Bethel Police are asking the community’s help in finding a man who has been missing for more than a week. Richard Parks, age 55, was last seen in Bethel on September 17 wearing a camouflage coat, black pants, and carrying a black and red backpack. He wears a mustache and beard and has a shaved head. 

The man that the McCann Treatment Center in Bethel was named after has died. 

A film showing tonight at the Bethel Cultural Center takes a frank look at suicide and how to heal. "We Breathe Again" tells stories of strength and resilience to reframe the despair of suicide in Alaska Native communities. Bethel local Earl Polk appears in the film.