Take 5 for your health

Kim Richter, who runs the tobacco cessation program at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas, says her average patient has been smoking for 29 years. (Photo: Dave Ranney | Heartland Health Monitor)

KU Tobacco Cessation Expert Sees ‘Big Disparity In Who’s Smoking And Who’s Dying’ Studies have shown that nearly half of the cigarettes consumed in the United States are smoked by people thought to have a mental illness. At the same time, people who have a mental illness die an average of 25 years earlier than those…

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New KC Mental Health Center Will Get $20M From Hospital Sales

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster

The sale of two Kansas City-area hospitals will generate $20 million in the next decade to help operate a new mental health crisis center on the city’s East Side, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said Wednesday. Koster made the announcement while standing outside the state office building at the corner of 12th Street and Prospect…

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Children’s services tax on table for Jackson, Clay Counties

art sculpture at Synergy Services

Jackson and Clay counties are hoping to join a handful of Missouri municipalities that have enacted a local tax to fund services for at-risk children and youth. The Jackson-Clay Children’s Services Fund Committee is hoping that voters will enact a quarter-cent sales tax that the committee estimates could generate as much as $40 million in…

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