Health News
- $3.5 Million In Grants Allocated Across State To Treat Heroin And Prescription Drug Addiction And Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome
As part of the heroin legislation passed this year, community mental health centers and residential treatment facilities across the state will receive more than $3.5 million in grants to help treat prescription drug and heroin abuse, and address neonatal...
- Veteran Journalist Offers Advice On Covering Mental Health Issues: Be Careful, Creative, And Balanced, Not Discriminatory
The term 'mental health' has been tossed around a lot lately in stories about Kentucky's mental health funding and mental health coverage through Medicaid expansion. It's important to use precise language when writing about the topic,...
- At Least One In Eight Teens, And Perhaps One In Five, Have A Mental-health Issue; Adhd Tops, Substance Abuse Also High
The most comprehensive report yet on mental disorders in children shows attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most commonly diagnosed problem in those aged 3-17, and the most common health issues for teenagers include addiction to...
- Bankruptcy Filing By Mental-health Agency Is A Loser For Kentucky, Where Such Services Can Be Scarce And Little Used
By Molly Burchett Kentucky Health News The decision of Seven Counties Services Inc. to file bankruptcy to avoid paying into the Kentucky Employee Retirement System has created a "no win" situation for the state, and the issue may add yet another...
- Kentucky Receives An F Grade For Its Low Funding Of Mental-health Services; Supply Falls Short Of Demand
Kentucky's supply of mental-health services is much lower than demand for those services, in terms of state funding, and the state spends only 45 percent of the national average in mental-health funding per person. In 2010, Kentucky dedicated...
Health News
Extensive series focuses on the many faces of mental illness
Mental illness in Rowan County is the subject of an eight-part series of stories written by Noelle Hunter for The Morehead News.
With Part 1 largely an introduction to the project, Part 2 gets into the facts and figures of the disorders that fall under the mental-illness umbrella. According to the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration, 45.9 million American adults ? one in five ? experienced some mental illness in the past year. In Kentucky, 180,000 people live with a serious mental illness, which includes schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, panic disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Dr. Thomas Insell, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, described mental illnesses as "real brain disorders that result from complex genetic risks plus environmental factors." Neither prevalence nor mortality rates associated with mental illness have decreased over time. And though there have been advancements in treatments these disorders, most in the way of medication and therapy, there is still much that is unknown, Hunter reports.
That comes with larger cultural ramifications. In 2008, about 5,100 adults who have a mental illness were incarcerated in Kentucky prisons and almost 700 adults committed suicide, "almost always a result of untreated mental illness," Hunter reports.
The series is running on Tuesdays in the twice-a-week paper. Part 3 profiles a woman living with bipolar disorder; Part 4 will report on the views of clinicians and therapists; Part 5 will profile a man living with bipolar disorder; Part 6 will profile a person living with schizophrenia; Part 7 will focus on the effects on families; and Part 8 will look at treatment options and recovery. The website of the newspaper, part of Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., is here.
- $3.5 Million In Grants Allocated Across State To Treat Heroin And Prescription Drug Addiction And Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome
As part of the heroin legislation passed this year, community mental health centers and residential treatment facilities across the state will receive more than $3.5 million in grants to help treat prescription drug and heroin abuse, and address neonatal...
- Veteran Journalist Offers Advice On Covering Mental Health Issues: Be Careful, Creative, And Balanced, Not Discriminatory
The term 'mental health' has been tossed around a lot lately in stories about Kentucky's mental health funding and mental health coverage through Medicaid expansion. It's important to use precise language when writing about the topic,...
- At Least One In Eight Teens, And Perhaps One In Five, Have A Mental-health Issue; Adhd Tops, Substance Abuse Also High
The most comprehensive report yet on mental disorders in children shows attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most commonly diagnosed problem in those aged 3-17, and the most common health issues for teenagers include addiction to...
- Bankruptcy Filing By Mental-health Agency Is A Loser For Kentucky, Where Such Services Can Be Scarce And Little Used
By Molly Burchett Kentucky Health News The decision of Seven Counties Services Inc. to file bankruptcy to avoid paying into the Kentucky Employee Retirement System has created a "no win" situation for the state, and the issue may add yet another...
- Kentucky Receives An F Grade For Its Low Funding Of Mental-health Services; Supply Falls Short Of Demand
Kentucky's supply of mental-health services is much lower than demand for those services, in terms of state funding, and the state spends only 45 percent of the national average in mental-health funding per person. In 2010, Kentucky dedicated...