Take 5

Children o the floor listening to announcement.

Take 5 For Your Health

Children’s Mercy South Gets New Name To Reflect Its Statewide Reach Children’s Mercy Hospital, which opened its first clinic in Kansas nearly 30 years ago and now has eight spread across the state, has changed the name of its facility in Overland Park from Children’s Mercy South to Children’s Mercy Hospital Kansas. Dr. Randall L….

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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)

Take 5 for your health

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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Young children playing

Take 5 for your health

Medicaid Mystery: Why Is Coverage Dropping Among Kansas’ Youngest? For two years now, the staff at Kansas Action for Children has been trying to unravel a mystery: Why is Medicaid enrollment dropping among the state’s youngest children? Enrollment of low-income children 1-5 peaked in October 2012 and has been dropping steadily since. Enrollment of infants…

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Take 5 for your health

Telemedicine Expands, Though Financial Prospects Still Uncertain Say you’re a Midwestern farmer in a hospital bed, recovering from surgery or a major illness. It’s time for the nurse’s check-in, but there’s no knock on the door. At Mercy Hospital in St. Louis, a camera attached to the wall over the foot of the bed whirls around, as a…

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Claudia Rivera (right) and her boyfriend, Jesùs Varela, stand in the yard of their Liberal, Kansas, home with their 1-year-old son, Fabian. (Photo: Esther Honig | Heartland Health Monitor)

Take 5 for your health

High Teen Birth Rates In Rural Kansas Pose Obstacles To Economic Advancement Nineteen-year-old Claudia Rivera shares a single-story tract home in Liberal, Kansas, with her boyfriend, 20-year-old Jesùs Varela. Last month, Varela’s mother moved in so she could watch Rivera’s baby boy, Fabian, while Rivera works at the Dollar General store and Valera pulls down a shift at…

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Actor David Dastmalchian spoke Friday outside the Statehouse at a rally highlighting mental health and addiction treatment options in Kansas. (Photo: Susie Fagan | Heartland Health Monitor)

Take 5 for your health

From Heroin To Hollywood: Kansas Native Shares Story Of Addiction And Recovery Los Angeles-based actor David Dastmalchian returned to Kansas with a message he said should transcend politics: We can’t give up on people who struggle with substance abuse and mental illness. Dastmalchian is now a budding Hollywood star, with roles in blockbusters like 2008’s…

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Shona Banda, shown here after she was booked into jail and then released after posting bond in June, is preparing to sue Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, the Kansas Department for Children and Families and the Garden City Police Department. (Photo: James Dobson | Garden City Telegram)

Take 5 for your health

Kansas Mom Charged in Marijuana Case to Sue Brownback, State Agency Lawyers for Garden City resident Shona Banda have prepared a lawsuit against Gov. Sam Brownback and the state agency that has custody of her child, claiming she has a constitutional right to use cannabis to treat her Crohn’s disease. Banda self-published a book and posted…

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Head Start students at Woodland Early Learning Center in Kansas City, Missouri, interact in their classroom. (Photo: Mike Sherry | Heartland Health Monitor)

Take 5 for your health

Program Has Been Giving Children A ‘Head Start’ In Kansas City For 50 Years This year marks historic anniversaries for several pieces of landmark legislation, including Medicare and the Americans with Disabilities Act. It’s also the 50th anniversary of another significant program, Head Start, which was launched as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty. The…

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Six Kansas cities have added e-cigarettes to their local smoking bans. (BIGSTOCK)

Take 5 for your health

Health Advocates Will Push To Add E-Cigarettes To Kansas Smoking Ban Kansas’ ban on smoking tobacco products in most public places has been in place since 2010. In those five years, the smoke-free atmosphere of bars, restaurants and other indoor spots has become the norm. Erica Anderson, a health promotion specialist for the Lawrence-Douglas County…

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This batch of young turkeys is among the first birds returned to an avian-flu infected farm in northwest Iowa. (Photo: Amy Mayer | Harvest Public Media)

Take 5 for your health

Officials, Farmers Preparing For Fall Bird Flu Outbreak Amid Ongoing Mystery Farmers and agriculture officials are gearing up for another round of bird flu this fall, an outbreak they fear could be worse than the devastating spring crisis that hit egg layers and turkeys in the Midwest, wiped out entire farms and sent egg prices…

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