children
Inpatient mental health treatment now available to more Kentucky boys in state care
Eligible boys in the care of the Kentucky Department for Community Based Services or Juvenile Justice system who need “complex mental and behavioral health care” can now access inpatient treatment in Owensboro, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services announced Tuesday. Called The BIRCH, the 10-bed inpatient program operates out of RiverValley Behavioral Health’s adolescent […]
Kentucky Auditor Ball sues Beshear for access to computerized records of abuse, neglect
Kentucky Auditor Allison Ball has filed a lawsuit against the Beshear administration in Franklin Circuit Court in her ongoing effort to ensure the office of the ombudsman has access to information about abuse and neglect cases. This move comes after Ball and the administration have gone back and forth on access for the past two […]
What’s IUI? What’s IVF? A look at the fertility treatments the Walz family is talking about
The broader scope of fertility treatments entered the spotlight this week after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and his wife Gwen shared that they had children through a less commonly known procedure. Since Vice President Kamala Harris selected Gov. Walz as her running mate, he has discussed his family’s fertility journey during speeches in Pennsylvania, Nebraska […]
Hundreds of thousands of parents died from drugs. Their kids need more help, advocates say.
Every day, 8-year-old Emma sits in a small garden outside her grandmother’s home in Salem, Ohio, writing letters to her mom and sometimes singing songs her mother used to sing to her. Emma’s mom, Danielle Stanley, died of an overdose last year. She was 34, and had struggled with addiction since she was a teenager, […]
Breaking the Stigma: Postpartum depression is lonely. Shame, guilt make it worse.?
This story discusses postpartum depression and suicide. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.? Before having children, Chan Kemper pictured how the experience would go.? “I was determined to have the hippiest, dippiest, crunchy, earth goddess pregnancies and deliveries that I could […]
Roundtable explores ways to improve Kentucky maternal health
LOUISVILLE — Maternal health is complicated, and reducing mortality around birth takes a comprehensive approach, advocates from across Kentucky said at a Thursday roundtable moderated by Carole Johnson, the administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration for the Biden administration. During the roundtable, which took place at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Louisville, Johnson […]
Former KY Gov. Matt Bevin’s adopted son reportedly removed from abusive facility in Jamaica
As Kentucky governor, Matt Bevin said his overriding goal was to reform what he said was the state’s “broken machine” of an adoption and foster care system. “This is the driving reason why I made the decision to run, because it needs to be fixed,” Bevin said in a 2017 interview on KET. In that […]
How to improve foster care in Kentucky to be subject of virtual town halls. Public invited.
The public is invited to virtual town hall meetings this month to discuss how to improve outcomes for Kentucky families and children in the foster care system. The meetings are hosted by Citizen Foster Care Review Boards. The first regional meeting was Aug. 1. Others will be held Aug, 6, 13 and 16. Registration is […]
Kentucky lawmakers hear about efforts to resolve dispute over access to abuse, neglect records
FRANKFORT — Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services and the state auditor’s office said Tuesday they are open to entering a memorandum of understanding to ensure the office of the ombudsman has the access it needs to a computer system that stores information about abuse and neglect cases.? The two parties are still hashing […]
Republicans slam administration for not carrying out laws that Beshear says legislature didn’t fund
FRANKFORT — Kentucky Republican lawmakers slammed the Beshear administration Tuesday for “picking and choosing” what laws to implement amid funding disputes that threaten 2024 laws to help kinship care families and create a statewide child abuse reporting system.? Eric Friedlander, the secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, repeatedly told lawmakers during the […]
Welcome move to boost child protection in Kentucky trips over conflicting views of the law
Increasingly worried about suspected abuse of her young grandson, Michelle Tynes said she battled for years with Kentucky social service workers to act on what she said was the deplorable situation in the Western Kentucky home where he and four other children lived. “I made multiple reports,” said Tynes, who eventually won full custody of […]
Whooping cough outbreak ‘a stark reminder’ of decline in vaccinations among Kentucky kids
Kentucky’s outbreak of whooping cough comes amid a decline in childhood vaccinations, which a health insurance industry group is looking to combat by funding a messaging campaign to address vaccine hesitancy and increase immunization rates.? “This outbreak is a stark reminder of what can happen when immunization rates fall,” Tom Stevens, the president of the […]