Monument Health

Counselor Angelena Plummer sits in a room used for therapy at her private practice, A Positive Life, on March 3, 2023, in Rapid City. (Nicole Schlabach/For South Dakota Searchlight)

Need mental health care in SD? You may have to get in line

BY: - April 1, 2023

Angelena Plummer, owner of a counseling practice in Rapid City, knows what it’s like to wait for mental health care. A few years ago, she called a therapist after a distressing life event. When she found out the wait was three months for the next available appointment, Plummer recalled, “it was a literal jaw drop.” […]

A photo of Abbey Lynn Steele on display during a vigil on Dec. 6, 2022, outside the Pennington County Jail in Rapid City. (Photo by A.J. Etherington/Rapid City Journal)

Justice coalition aims to force change after death of Native American mother

BY: - January 9, 2023

A group of Native American activists and their supporters have refined their demands for Pennington County officials following the death of a young woman who’d been arrested in Rapid City, and they plan to meet weekly all winter long to push for their demands to be met. Tuesday will mark four weeks of group meetings, […]

The exterior of Monument Health in Rapid City, pictured on Dec. 16, 2022. (Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight)

Advocates: South Dakota has ‘counterproductive’ approach to drug use by mothers

BY: - December 16, 2022

Abbey Steele found herself facing a felony drug ingestion charge in 2021, based on a urine test collected after she gave birth to her first child. Steele was among two dozen mothers whose maternity ward drug test sparked a call to the Rapid City Police Department in 2021.  The RCPD has collected the metric since […]