2014 is the 50th anniversary of the first report of the U.S. Surgeon General on smoking and health. Kentucky has not kept up with other states in reducing smoking and secondhand smoke, but this year is the perfect time to make up for lost time! Kentucky can catch up now and join the majority of other states who have passed laws eliminating exposure to the harmful chemicals in tobacco smoke. Did you know that only [...]
This post originally appeared as an Op-Ed in the Courier Journal on January 6, 2014. You can find it online, here. The Courier-Journal’s Dec. 29 editorial on Kentucky’s “runaway cabinet” raised numerous questions about how the state can better protect children from dying due to abuse or neglect. We hope the editorial brought more than just questions, however. We want it to inspire the Beshear administration and the Kentucky General Assembly to take immediate and long-term steps [...]
It’s that time of year. U of L wins a bowl game! I don’t want to talk about the U of L/UK basketball game. Those Holiday decorations come down. And we all make a few New Year’s resolutions, whether we admit it or not! You can find lists of resolutions that detail the most common commitments to a new year. Items like: “Get in shape.” “Get my finances in order.” “Pay attention to balance in [...]
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released a report that compared parent-reported children’s oral health status and receipt of preventive dental visits across the United States between 2003 and 2011/2012. It was interesting to look at this report and see what improvements have been made, where we have room for growth, and where Kentucky ranks. The report includes the following national results: In 2003, 67.7 percent of parents reported that their children had [...]
Where else could they go? It was either us or a foster home. When you have a loving family that wants to take them in and support them there has to be something to support that. –Grandmother raising 3 grandchildren, Kenton County Kentucky’s strong family values are exemplified by the thousands of relatives stepping up to care for children in their family. With the number of children being cared for by kin nearly doubling over [...]
Kentucky Youth Advocates Board and Staff wish you a great holiday season and look forward to seeing you in the new year!
The term “young invincible” has been in the news a lot recently. What is a “young invincible”? A “young invincible” is a person between the ages of 19 and 34. This age group is particularly important in the context of health insurance. As insurance marketplaces, either state or federally-run, are getting up and running throughout the country, a distribution of all age groups is important for these marketplaces to succeed. The young invincibles are especially [...]
On Thursday, January 16, 2014, hundreds of advocates, business leaders, youth and elected officials will gather at the Capitol in Frankfort to be a visual and audible presence for Kentucky’s most precious asset: its children. Since the first Children’s Advocacy Day in 2004, the event has grown in numbers but has maintained its purpose of rallying advocates to stand up and speak out on behalf of kids. This year, the 10th Annual Children’s Advocacy Day [...]
I’d like to start with two seemingly disparate paragraphs. The first is about Edward DeBono. DeBono is one interesting guy. He holds multiple doctorates – including a medical degree – from places like Oxford and Cambridge. A Rhodes Scholar, DeBono has held faculty appointments at his two alma maters and Harvard. He is widely viewed as the leading international researcher around the neuroscience of thinking. While he has written over seventy books, his research was [...]
The last eight months have been eventful for the Kentucky Oral Health Coalition, which is a project of Kentucky Youth Advocates. In May we received the Oral Health 2014 DentaQuest planning grant and began the groundwork for developing a statewide oral health literacy campaign by conducting focus groups across the state, collecting information from oral health providers, and holding four stakeholder meetings. We traveled around the state and visited with parents in Campbell, Graves, Hopkins, [...]
