Healthcare

People gather for a suicide prevention and awareness walk in Hays in 2018.

Rural Suicide Rates Are Rising In Kansas And Solutions Won’t Come Easy

Sparsely populated communities face unique challenges, such as isolation and cultural stigmas about mental health, that call for tailored suicide prevention approaches.

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Mark Kirchhoff, left, a volunteer with Columbia Project Homeless Connect, speaks July 29, 2021 with Taylor Knoth, a public health nurse, at the registration table for a COVID-19 vaccination clinic.

Once Upon a Time in Missouri: Republican Attorney General Backed Mandatory Vaccination

During a 1921 smallpox outbreak in Kansas City, the state health board required vaccine passports to board trains. The case is pertinent in today’s COVID-19 vaccine debate.

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MU Health Care opened a mass COVID-19 vaccination site in the Walsworth Club at Memorial Stadium in Columbia, Missouri. on Jan. 25, 2020.

COVID Cases Among Children Rising as Missouri Delta Variant Wave Enters Fifth Month

One effect of the Delta variant wave is that children are a much larger share of recent COVID-19 cases, just as the school year begins.

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Heather King, a nurse and mother of a 9-year-old daughter, supported the Johnson County Commissions public health order requiring children from pre-K to sixth grade to wear masks indoor at school.

Two-thirds of Kansas’ 25 Largest Public School Districts Adopt Mask Mandates

Two-thirds of elected school boards responsible for the 25 largest public school districts in Kansas imposed some form of an indoor masking mandate in response to the spread of COVID-19.

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Jason and Keri Medows during a recording for Illinois Farm Bureau Women in Ag. Jason launched the "Ag State of Mind" podcast to discuss mental health issues in rural America.

Mental Health Assistance Hard to Find in Rural America

A shortage of professionals, bad broadband and lingering stigma make it hard for people in rural America seeking mental health help. By at least one measure, Missouri is the worst state in the country in terms of rural mental health access.

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