Author

Sarah Ladd

Sarah Ladd

Sarah Ladd is a Louisville-based journalist from West Kentucky who's covered everything from crime to higher education. She spent nearly two years on the metro breaking news desk at The Courier Journal. In 2020, she started reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic and has covered health ever since. As the Kentucky Lantern's health reporter, she focuses on mental health, LGBTQ+ issues, children's welfare, COVID-19 and more.

Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

Parents in Kentucky could be liable for kids’ misuse of guns under Republican lawmaker’s plan

By: - October 9, 2024

This story mentions suicide. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, call or text the suicide prevention lifeline at 988.? A Northern Kentucky Republican will file a bill in the 2025 legislative session to hold parents and guardians civilly accountable for gun violence or misuse carried out by minor children in their care.? […]

Kentucky must strengthen protections for survivors of domestic violence, says governor

By: - October 1, 2024

If you or someone you know has experienced domestic violence, call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.? You can also contact any of Kentucky’s 15 domestic violence programs.? FRANKFORT — Kentucky must examine its gun laws to make sure it’s doing all it can to […]

After 2 women die in ‘ambush’ outside Hardin courthouse, what can Kentucky do better?

By: - September 30, 2024

If you or someone you know has experienced domestic violence, call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233. You can also contact any of Kentucky’s 15 domestic violence programs.? This story also discusses suicide. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 988.? Georgia Hensley feels like she’s […]

Kentucky attorney general sues Express Scripts alleging company’s actions fueled opioid crisis

By: - September 26, 2024

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman has sued a pharmacy benefits manager he says played a “role in worsening the deadly opioid crisis in Kentucky.”? The complaint, filed in Jessamine County Circuit Court Wednesday, names Express Scripts and affiliates as defendants and targets alleged practices over the last two decades. “The opioid crisis was fueled and […]

Free weather alert radios available for hard of hearing Kentuckians?

By: - September 26, 2024

Kentuckians who are deaf or hard of hearing can get free radios designed to alert other senses about dangerous weather through a new program named after the late Virginia Moore.? Moore died on Derby Day in 2023 at 61. Before that, she interpreted? in American Sign Language news of many deaths and announcements about COVID-19’s […]

‘Instead of incarcerating disease, start treating disease:’ Kentuckians in recovery talk solutions

By: - September 25, 2024

LOUISVILLE — Kentuckians in recovery say the state needs to better educate youth about addiction, digitize expungement for certain crimes and make harm reduction and community-based services more widely available to combat overdoses.? About 30 people gathered at the Women’s Healing Place in the West End of Louisville Wednesday as part of a “Public Health […]

Child care among needs heard from Kentucky kinship families

By: - September 25, 2024

Kentuckians who are raising a minor relative need better access to mental health care, housing and other basic support services, according to a new report released Tuesday. The report, from Kentucky Youth Advocates and the Kinship Families Coalition of Kentucky, is based on two online surveys and nine in-person listening sessions aimed at learning more […]

Zebrafish help Kentucky researchers advance understanding of fetal alcohol syndrome

By: - September 24, 2024

LOUISVILLE — Over the next five years, University of Louisville researchers plan to expose about 1.5 million fish eggs to alcohol in hopes of better understanding fetal alcohol syndrome in humans. Using a $2.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, researchers will specifically study zebrafish as a model for better understanding human facial […]

$5.7 million from federal government will expand opioid treatment in Eastern Kentucky

By: - September 24, 2024

Two Eastern Kentucky health care providers have received $5.7 million from the Department of Health and Human Services to expand opioid treatment programs.? Westcare Kentucky in Ashcamp and Baptist Healthcare System in Corbin received $3 million and $2.7 million, respectively. The grants will be spread over four years.? They’ll use the funds to “create new […]

Eight Kentucky community health centers to expand mental health care with federal money

By: - September 19, 2024

Eight community health centers in Kentucky have received nearly $5 million in federal funds to launch and expand mental health and substance use disorder treatments across the state.? The $4.7 million in grant money comes from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), housed within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).? Centers […]

2 generations split by incarceration say sentencing should consider those left behind

By: - September 19, 2024

When Jayden Spence was 5 years old, he watched police take his mother, Amanda Hall, away in handcuffs.? The experience “terrified” him, he told Kentucky lawmakers. It also left him a lingering “mistrust” of the justice system.? Spence and Hall lent their stories to the Interim Joint Committee on Judiciary Thursday and asked members to […]

Judge inks ceasefire in state government battle over new ombudsman’s access to information

By: - September 18, 2024

Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services must give the office of the ombudsman read-only access to a computer system, iTWIST, that stores information about abuse and neglect cases, according to an agreement approved by Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd. The access must be granted by the end of day Thursday, Sept. 19, Shepherd said […]