Bowling Green plans crisis mental health, substance abuse treatment

Proposed $20M facility would bypass law enforcement, judicial, hospital ER systems This community-based leadership team has come up with a solution modeled after a Nashville facility the committee visited last year. With this model, a person in a mental health crisis can receive immediate treatment. BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — After assessing approaches to help local residents…

Early detection may help Kentucky tamp down its lung cancer crisis

BY: CHARLOTTE HUFF, KFF HEALTH NEWS Anthony Stumbo’s heart sank after the doctor shared his mother’s chest X-ray. “I remember that drive home, bringing her back home, and we basically cried,” said the internal medicine physician, who had started practicing in eastern Kentucky near his childhood home shortly before his mother began feeling ill. “Nobody wants…

Ky. bill to encourage child care centers through zoning reform moving in legislature

Kentucky Public Radio | By Sylvia Goodman As lawmakers consider ways to bolster child care access in Kentucky, a bill to ease regulatory burdens on child care centers advances through a House committee. Kentucky lawmakers across the political spectrum are struggling to address growing child care deserts and the high cost of early childhood education. Republican…

Loosening pseudoephedrine purchase restrictions up for consideration in Frankfort

WEKU | By Stu Johnson Legislation to loosen time restrictions on the over-the-counter purchase of a popular decongestant is before the Kentucky House. The bill, sponsored by GOP Bowling Green Representative Mark Duvall, pertains to pseudoephedrine. The western Kentucky lawmaker said current law allows for three months of this medicine per year. “Then you’d have to…

Governor appointed leaders to Kentucky board and commissions

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Gov. Andy Beshear has appointed the following leaders to Kentucky boards and commissions: Gov. Beshear has appointed Deborah Alexander and Foster Shrout as members of the Consumers’ Advisory Council for terms expiring Feb. 1, 2027. Deborah Alexander of Lexington is a retired U.S. Department of State senior diplomatic advisor. She replaces Jerry Hodges, whose term has…

Respiratory illness in state keeps declining but it still elevated; more kids are in hospitals

By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News While emergency-department visits and hospital admissions related to respiratory illness were again less numerous in the week ended Feb. 4, the state Department for Public Health still considers them elevated. ED visits for respiratory-associated illness in Kentucky in the week saw a 6.7% drop, to 3,005 visits, according to the health…

Kentucky House budget defunds program steering defendants to drug treatment

Kentucky Public Radio | By Joe Sonka The state budget passed by the Kentucky House last week included a last-minute amendment to completely defund a heralded statewide program steering criminal defendants to drug treatment instead of prison. The Alternative Sentencing Worker Program has been within the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy for more than a decade, now employing 53 social…