LINK Kenton Reader - Volume 3, Edition 16 - March 14, 2025
By Meghan Goth
More than 23% of all adults in the United States have some sort of mental illness, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
Couple that with a study out of the University of Wisconsin that found the average county has only one mental service provider for every 320 registered residents, and you can understand why St. Elizabeth Healthcare is getting creative when it comes to removing barriers to mental healthcare in Northern Kentucky.
Placing social workers in primary care offices is just one way the hospital’s behavioral health arm is working to make sure social workers are able to meet people where they are.
“They capture patients that may be there for any reason to see primary care and need those services same day,” said Lisa Arrasmith, a psychiatric nurse practitioner with St. Elizabeth Health physicians.
The University of Wisconsin study, called Health Rankings and Roadmaps, ranks each county in the United States based on factors from healthcare to access to afford-
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ALSO INSIDE:
LOOKING FOR CARE:
Creative solutions to NKY’s mental health challenges
Explore these parks for boating, fishing, more p17
Pickleball’s popularity surges with all ages p18
Where to play disc golf around NKY p19
Work out, but make it fun p20
Overcoming cost barriers to mental health p4
Youth mental health diagnoses jump p6
Supporting moms’ (and their babies’) mental health p8
Veteran mental health services improve p10
How NKY is supporting seniors’ well-being p12
Ranks of police social workers growing p14
While the number of mental health providers in NKY has increased in the last 10 years, many people say they still struggle to find care. Photo provided | Taylor Deas-Melesh via Unsplash
PRESIDENT & CEO Lacy Starling
EXECUTIVE EDITOR Meghan Goth
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Continued from page 1
able housing to job opportunities, then explores how those factors work together to affect the overall health of a community.
Northern Kentucky’s statistics are stark compared to the number of residents per provider nationally: In Boone County, there is one mental health provider for every 710 people; in Campbell County, there is one for every 570 people; and in Kenton County, there is one mental health provider for every 460 people.
This mirrors what we found during our interviews for this issue. The two biggest barriers to mental health care in Northern Kentucky, according to the people we spoke to, are stigma and access to care.
But Arrasmith, who is also the clinical director of Behavioral Health and Addiction Medicine at St. E, said the hospital system is doing everything it can to change that.
“We don’t want to be part of the barrier,” Arrasmith said. “We are always trying to make progress in access.”
She said the number of providers in Northern Kentucky has increased significantly in the last 10 years.
“I would say for St. Elizabeth physicians it has skyrocketed,” Arrasmith said.
In 2016, she said, St. E had two nurse practitioners, a psychiatrist, a psychologist and a therapist or two.
Now, St. E has around 55 behavioral health providers and another 15 to 18 providers in addiction, Arrasmith said. That includes psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, psychologists, social workers and counselors.
“We decided we need to increase the number of providers and meet the needs of the community,” she said.
The services they provide range from therapy and testing to medication management to inpatient psychiatric and medical care to nursing home psychiatric consultations and medication management, and more.
And while St. Elizabeth is working to provide more mental health resources to the community, Arrasmith said an important thing to consider is everything that goes on behind the scenes.
No-show rates are a big problem for mental health providers, she said, so St. E has implemented strategies to improve those rates.
“Through our efforts, we’ve been pretty successful,” she said. “Our no-shows for patients have dropped down from 17%-18% to 7% and 8%.”
That also means there are bodies in seats, Arrasmith told LINK, which means there aren’t a lot of openings for new patients.
Providers are also seeing more acute disorders since COVID-19 that require specialized, long-term care.
“That takes a lot of time and effort on both people’s parts where they end up staying with you,” Arrasmith said. “We have discovered that our turnover rate is about 15% of our current caseload. So if you’re keeping 85% of your caseload year after year, you’re not opening up a lot of access.”
It’s hard to graduate more than that, she said, because of the way St. E treats patients and the complexity of the care.
The other barrier mentioned at length in our interviews was stigma.
“Stigma and the time that it takes to do the hard work is one of the bigger barriers,” Arrasmith said. “It’s not necessarily the number of providers we have.”
Mental health, she said, is not easy, and it’s not easy to talk about.
“They’ve got to be ready to accept the help,” she said. “I do see that that is probably the biggest barrier. Getting the patient to come and do it.”
Whether it’s a generational stigma that older adults may face or a stigma associated with substance use disorder that stems from other mental health problems, NKU’s Brittany Smith agreed that it is a real factor for many.
“The biggest barrier for people is stigma,” said Smith, who is a researcher and assistant professor in the Department of Psychological Science. “Society as a whole and providers need to overcome that stigma.”
Even if they are able to find a provider, getting the appointment covered by insurance or getting to the appointment – especially
if a person has physical disabilities or lives in a rural area – can create even more barriers.
But this LINK Reader Super Issue isn’t about barriers. It’s about the solutions that people and organizations in Northern Kentucky are finding and trying to help reduce the barriers keeping people from addressing their mental health needs.
These things can be as simple, NKU’s Smith said, as using people-centered language.
“Not calling people addicts, but people with substance use disorders” is one example, Smith told LINK.
It can also mean putting resources for people who are dealing with substance use disorders as a result of mental health diagnoses in one place.
“It’s like, here, go to this treatment center and get this medication that will help,” Smith said. “Great, but that treatment center is 20 minutes from my house and I can’t drive.”
Having a one-stop shop for people, or even centralized resources that don’t require the need to go to multiple places for treatment or medications, is another example.
And that, said Arrasmith, is exactly what St. E is trying to do.
“I think that what I’ve seen over the last six to seven years is a collaborative approach to care,” Arrasmith said. “And it’s gone more than just inpatient. We’ve now looked from going from, OK they were inpatient, they stepped to outpatient, we keep them stable, hopefully we can keep them out of outpatient care.”
Now, St. Elizabeth has social workers in primary care offices so that patients who may need same day services can see someone right away.
The solutions that mental health professionals are trying in Northern Kentucky range from finding ways to pay for mental health care, finding a holistic way to care for seniors, hiring social workers into police departments, and more.
Keep reading to learn more about Northern Kentucky’s approaches to caring for its residents’ mental health.
Lisa Arrasmith. Provided | St. Elizabeth Healthcare
Overcoming the cost barrier to mental health care
By Kenton Hornbeck
There is a growing cultural awareness of mental health in the United States, with more people than ever encountering mental health issues and seeking professional treatment.
In 2022, 59.3 million adults age 18 or older in the U.S. experienced some sort of mental illness – that’s approximately 23.1% of the adult population, according to research published by the National Institutes of Health. The same study found that 50.6% of them received mental health treatment in
the past year, with young people age 18 to 25 showing a treatment rate of 49.1%.
On a regional level, Laura Pleiman, director of community services and programs for Boone County, said she’s noticed an increased demand for mental health services.
“There is an increased demand and an awareness, too, that … the ‘suck it up and handle it’ [approach] isn’t going to work in these instances, an awareness that this is a legitimate crisis, it’s a mental health issue,” Pleiman said. “It’s about health, and so how
can we resolve those issues? By seeking treatment as appropriate.”
According to Pleiman, one of the highest barriers to obtaining mental health services is cost. A study published by the Association of American Medical Colleges found that 30% of people reported they were not able to receive care because their health insurance did not cover any mental health services.
Despite the associated costs, numerous organizations in Northern Kentucky help income-disadvantaged people afford mental health care services. NorthKey Community Care is one of the preeminent mental health services in the region. The organization provides outpatient counseling and therapy services.
NorthKey’s chief of clinical services, Jennifer Miller, said that organizations like hers can serve people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford them by providing them with adequate care and individualized treatment.
NorthKey has an established 24/7 hotline for individuals experiencing a mental health crisis, as well as crisis stabilization services to help people facing high-stress situations. These services can help people avoid expensive hospitalizations and maintain treatment progress.
“We will work with any of the folks that need care to figure out what is appropriate for their financial situation and how we may be able to work with them,” Miller said. “All of our services are available to low-income individuals, and we have a whole variety of them – so anything from outpatient therapy, psychiatry, primary care services – we have crisis services that are available to anyone in the community at any time.”
From Miller’s perspective, one of the key aspects of improving regional mental health outcomes is to increase awareness. This includes destigmatizing mental health conditions and societal pressures, both factors that could dissuade an at-risk
individual from seeking help.
“Different cultural groups continue to have beliefs that mental health is not a real issue, and so that gets pushed out there as a narrative that it’s all made up,” Miller said. “That continues to persist, as well as the belief that somehow mental health disorders don’t need treatment and that you’re just a bad person – you have to figure it out. We know that that’s quite the opposite of the truth.”
Regarding affordability, Pleiman said both public and private resources are available. This includes expanded coverage for mental health services through the Affordable Care Act.
“We have had increased insurance availability,” Pleiman said. “More and more individuals have that resource available to them after they passed through the Affordable Care Act, but there still are some that are falling through those cracks.”
Gaps in coverage are filled locally through several regional organizations, which often receive funding from public entities. Boone County, for example, allocates funding to social service agencies to boost their community assistance programs.
Each year, the Boone County Court approves midyear tax fund allocations to social service agencies in the county and across Northern Kentucky. The funding comes from the county’s aging, intellectual disabilities and mental health payroll tax. Organizations that use these funds include residential treatment centers, emergency shelters and counseling service providers.
Created in 1986, the tax is a 0.0015% occupational license fee capped at $25 annually for people employed in Boone County. The money may be used only by Boone County residents.
“When we fund those organizations, we want to meet that need and bridge that,” Pleiman said.
NorthKey’s Kenton County office is on Madison Avenue in Covington. Provided | NorthKey
Are the kids all right? Mental health diagnoses jump
By Nathan Granger
“So much has changed in the difference between these years that the generations are separated by,” said Millie McGlone, a high school student from Fort Thomas.
“So much has changed. There’s social media now, so that affects a lot of people’s mental health; whether they would like to admit it or not, it does. Everything that’s going on is so different.”
McGlone is a fellow with an organization called Hopeful Empowered Youth, or HEY!, a multiorganizational agency that aims to create systemic changes to the infrastructure around youth mental health. Her comments came in response to a question about what adults struggled to understand about youth mental health.
Mental health diagnoses among American youth, especially depression and anxiety, have been on the increase since at least 2016, according to the National Survey of Children’s Health, a program administered through the U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Health and Human Services.
Communities across the region and the country are considering how to respond.
“What we’ve seen is the severity of the cases has gotten more intense over the years,” said Jennifer Ossege, clinical psychologist and co-owner of Viewpoint Psychological Services, which has offices in Fort Thomas,
Florence and Crestview Hills.
In 2023, about 20% (or about 5.3 million) of children age 12 to 17 received a diagnosis of some kind of mental health or behavioral problem.
Between 2016 and 2023, there was a 35% increase in diagnosed mental health or behavioral conditions. The prevalence of diagnosed anxiety increased 61% during the period, while depression increased 45%.
Finally, in 2022 and 2023, the percentage of kids ages 3 to 17 who admitted to having one or more mental, emotional, developmental or behavioral conditions in Kentucky came in higher than the national average at about 30%, according to the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative, which partnered with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to furnish the National Survey of Children’s Health.
“We’re seeing the trend with adults, as well,” Ossege said. “Anxiety and depression rates have gone up significantly. Particularly since COVID – we were on the edge of a mental health crisis, or some would say we were in a mental health crisis before COVID happened – but since 2019, I think, the depression and anxiety rates for adults have gone up, and all of that trickles down, right? So when adults are struggling with their own mental health, their own depression and anxiety, that gets reflected in their kids and just in the world around us.”
Multiple factors, such as the localized family dynamics that Ossege points to, contribute to a given mental health landscape. Additionally,these factors range from individual characteristics, such as one’s genetics and coping skills, all the way up to broad social factors like government policy.
Lockdowns during the pandemic increased physical and social isolation among many people, arguably amplifying any conditions already apparent before COVID. Couple this with academic, social and family pressures to succeed and fit in, plus the anxiety-inducing mechanics of social media and the internet, and you have a cocktail for increased rates of certain conditions among kids and teens.
“There are many benefits to social media, but there’s also things with social media that can cause – can trigger anxiety, worry, depression, feeling left out,” said Melissa Haag-Costin, a licensed counselor and counselor supervisor of Pediatric Associates, which also has offices across the region. “With teenagers they’re in that de-
velopmental stage where they are trying to figure out who they are, where they belong, who are their core group of people, what are their values?
“They have a mind of their own now, and so they also are having this conflict: ‘This is how I was raised. This is what I’m taught, but this is my opinion and what I think,’ and how to navigate through those challenges.”
Cost barriers persist
It’s true that some options for treatment and prevention have increased. There are now more options for telehealth, and many school districts have brought in expert consultants to bolster their mental health resources. Still, there are difficulties that teens and their families can encounter when trying to get services. One barrier, depending on a family’s financial and demographic situation, is paying for treatment.
“There still is a huge barrier for a lot of families [as it relates to] insurance,” said Nicole
Factors that contribute to mental health challenges for young people. Provided | U.S. Surgeon General
Pfirman, senior vice president with MindPeace. MindPeace provides in-school providers and treatment at no cost to schools in an effort to lift barriers for students and families. They serve 250 schools in Southwest Ohio, Pfirman said, and are looking to expand into Northern Kentucky.
“There is a lack of care because families either can’t afford the co-pays or the insurance providers,” Pfirman said. “For example, we have a lot of families who are immigrant families that have no access to insurance, which means they hardly have any access to mental health care.”
MindPeace is one of HEY!’s partners, and Pfirman sits on the organization’s steering committee.
To make matters worse, helping professions generally often don’t pay as well as other health care professions. Northern Kentucky also has a shortage of youth psychiatric providers, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. On top of all that, burnout among helping professionals is high, both Ossege and Haag-Costin said.
Young people themselves point out that the region has options for people going through extreme mental crises but fewer options for dealing with more workaday stresses.
“There needs to be some kind of service or some kind of place for people to go when they feel like they’re not OK and they need some help with something, but they’re not in a crisis situation,” McClone said. “There’s
not a place in the world for people who are in between.”
HEY! and its partner organizations and funders draw their vision from a community-wide needs assessment published early in 2024. The assessment found that, “while the region is a national leader in youth behavioral health care, siloed funding, lack of insurance reimbursement, decreased social connections and a shortage of access to clinical care continue to serve as barriers to youth and their families,” according to a HEY! news release.
Focus on prevention
The organization then used the insights
from the needs assessment to furnish a 10year strategy for building out resources in Greater Cincinnati. They’re in the process of identifying 10 schools in the region to run pilot programs next year for what they describe as a “school of wellness” model, which aims to offer a broader continuum of mental health services than what’s currently available.
“We had young people at the table [during] that needs assessment, mostly teenagers, young adults, who continually asked us, ‘If you’re going to do anything with this needs assessment, please focus on the prevention side,’” said HEY! Executive Director Clare Blankemeyer.
Blankemeyer emphasized that any changes around youth mental health needed to have the input of, well, youths. A key part of HEY!’s work is its youth fellows, age 14 to 24. McGlone was part of the inaugural cohort. The fellows draw from their own experience, including their experience with mental health and mental health systems,
to offer suggestions on the sorts of changes needed. They sit on working groups aimed at addressing specific aspects of the organization’s work.
One of the key gaps, McGlone and Blankemeyer said, is the lack of so-called third spaces for youths, which refer to social environments outside of work and school where young people can safely congregate and socialize. There just aren’t many places for kids to hang out, McGlone said, and she thought that a lot of mental health problems could be identified before they became crises if more such spaces were available.
This attitude was reflected in the comments of the other youth fellows LINK nky spoke with. They also spoke to the need for greater cultural competency and understanding among adult providers, especially as it related to youth in the LGBTQ community and youth with a history in the foster care system.
“I would like to see more third spaces,” McGlone said. “Like, more developed places that teens can go and meet other people and socialize and make new friends and just be – safely – because where I live, at least, there’s not a lot of places.”
“I think the biggest thing is sometimes parents come in – or people in general come in – and really expect change to happen like magic,” Ossege said. “And, you know, we don’t have a magic wand. We’re helping change learning and systems. That takes time.”
Call 998 day or night to get connected to a crisis counselor. Need immediate mental health help?
A map showing the child and adolescent psychiatrist workforce availability in Greater Cincinnati. Boone and Kenton were found to have a severe shortage of providers, while Campbell County is listed as having a high shortage of providers. Provided | American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, HEY!
Members of HEY!’s inaugural youth fellows cohort. Provided | HEY!
Personal support key to moms’, babies’ mental health
By Robin Gee
In early 2020, Courtney McWhorter was “basically homeless.” She was in what she described as a toxic relationship. She was using methamphetamine. And she was pregnant.
“I also had some felony warrants hanging over my head,” she said. “I gave birth in April 2020. A social worker was involved, and so I got picked for the START program through [Child Protective Services]. I remember getting a phone call from the very cheery
nurse from the Baby Steps program.”
Today, McWhorter is a peer support specialist at St. Elizabeth’s Baby Steps program, which works with mothers to support them in myriad ways – including mental health services – through their recovery. McWhorter is also a mother of three and nearing her five-year sober mark. She’s lived the experiences that many of the women referred to the program go through.
A mother’s health, both physically and mentally, can have a profound and lasting
effect on her children, especially in the first years of life, according to the National Institutes of Health and other health experts.
Northern Kentucky state health officials and health providers recognized this fact and have come together to offer programs targeted to pregnant women and mothers in our region. They’ve found that the most successful of these programs are those that provide direct support to mothers and their families.
Baby Steps program
For pregnant women and mothers with substance abuse challenges, the road to recovery affects not only them but their children. Experts say many will reach out for help during pregnancy. Yet, with all the stresses that come with having a newborn, it can be a vulnerable time that can lead to a relapse.
St. Elizabeth’s Baby Steps program works with mothers to support them through their recovery. In Northern Kentucky, the program has three nurses and three peer support specialists on staff.
Dr. Teresa Koeller-Brueggemann is the medical director for St. Elizabeth Physicians Journey Recovery Center and Baby Steps, which is housed in the recovery center. Program staff will meet patients where they are and work with them through their recovery, she said.
“Our doors are always open,” Koeller-Brueggemann said. “If we send you someplace else because you need to go to residential (treatment), we want you back. We try to stay in contact with patients or their families while they’re in treatment.”
Patients can come to Baby Steps through Journey and other recovery agencies, the hospital itself, the court system or Children’s Protective Services.
“We work with any woman who has substance use, either pregnant or while they’re still parenting children at home,” said Angela Scroggins, nurse manager at St. Elizabeth’s Maternal Fetal Center and the Baby Steps program. “Our first goal is to get them sober and to help them sustain that sobriety. We want them to be able to parent their children, and then we want them to just grow in their own recovery.”
Scroggins said the program tries to support the women in any way they can. They connect them to services, community resources, and provide transportation and access to WIC, parenting classes and anything else they might need. WIC is a supplemental nutritional program that provides free food, breastfeeding support and referrals to other services for low-income women and their infants or children.
“My nurses are like case managers,” she said. “We can work with any treatment center. We work with Crossroads, Brightview, the methadone clinic,... just about every group in Northern Kentucky that provides some type of substance use assistance to
“Our peer support specialists are women who have recovered from addiction, and all of them had babies or small children while they were in addiction. They use that lived experience to help guide women. They go to court with them. They are a huge bridge through CPS.”
Courtney’s story
While in a residential treatment center, McWhorter continued to hear from that cheerful nurse and from a peer support specialist, another woman who had been through what she was facing. McWhorter said she was committed to recovery and was able to be with her daughter in the last two weeks of residential treatment.
It was rough going. She relapsed, went to jail for a time and lost custody of her daughter, she said. Determined, she asked her social worker about the Journey Recovery Center and began an intensive outpatient program there while continuing to see and work with the Baby Steps staff.
“We had a group once a week that we would meet with a group therapist, and there were other moms in there,” McWhorter said. “The group I remember was kind of small at first for me, and it’s just a struggle to keep attendance in a group setting and treatment.… But I really liked the therapist, I really liked the group and I really enjoyed the support.”
The peer support, she said, was crucial.
“Peer support would reach out to me every week asking, ‘Hey, how are you?’ ‘Is there anything that you need?’ ‘Is there anything you’re struggling with?’ And they got to know me really well, because I’m a talker,” McWhorter said. “Every time they would call and check in, it was like, at least 45 minutes conversation, because I just really utilized that support. It helped me to be accountable.”
McWhorter continued to work on her recovery and regained custody of her daughter. She got a job with an employer who accommodated her therapy schedule. She also continued with Baby Steps, and, when a position to be a peer support specialist opened, staff encouraged her to apply. She did, and now she has been in the position for three years.
Today her life looks very different, and she is full of hope, she said.
“I have a fiancé,” McWhorter said. “He’s also recovering. He’s got a son – he’s 13 –and then we have a daughter together. We bought a house back in October. We’ve got brand new cars in our driveway. I mean, life is good. And the best part of all of that is I get to help other women in similar situations. I get to be a part of their story and walk alongside them in their early recovery days and help them build that foundation, that support for them to be able to be successful long-term.”
Every Child Succeeds
Another program created to help mothers and their children is Health Access Nur-
Courtney McWhorter, a peer support specialist with Baby Steps, with her fiancé, Joseph Daniel, and their children. Provided | Courtney McWhorter
turing Development Services, also known as HANDS.
The program partners with Every Child Succeeds to provide home-visit professionals who work one-on-one with parents to ensure they have what they need to handle the many stresses and challenges that can come with having babies and small children.
Depression and anxiety can have a detrimental effect on mothers and their families. A nurturing and stimulating environment is essential to child development, especially in the first few years. As a part of the Every Child Succeeds program, patients are screened for depression to identify those who may need additional support.
Funded through HANDS and private donations, Every Child Succeeds serves low income families in Boone, Campbell, Grant and Kenton counties and is offered at two sites – St. Elizabeth Healthcare and Brighton Center, said Jennifer Frey, its president and CEO.
“It’s a completely voluntary program where a home visitor is assigned to the family either prenatally or within 90 days after a baby is born,” Frey said. “They go to the house to support the family in all things with the end goal being to optimize infant and toddler development.”
If a mother’s mental health is in any way impacted or stressed, Frey said, that affects how a baby thrives – or doesn’t. “And so, we take this whole-environment approach and very much focus on the relationship between the mother and the baby,” she said. “Therefore, we screen moms for postpartum depression.”
Every Child Succeeds uses the Edinburgh depression screen with moms at three different intervals. They screen at six to eight months before giving birth, two to 12 weeks after giving birth, and then when the baby is eight to 12 months old.
If the screening identifies that a mom may be suffering from depression, the organization will refer her to one of their partner agencies, such as mental health providers NorthKey or Sun Behavioral Health or ION Center, a personal violence prevention center in Covington.
Mothers may be referred to the Nation-
al Maternal Mental Health Hotline, a 24/7 free, confidential support line. They also can connect with a support group run through the local chapter of Postpartum Support International.
“We are a prevention program, rather than a treatment program,” Frey said. “We then strive to make sure, because we’re there frequently, we are focused on the family and we’re there to create nurturing environments, that we’re paying attention to maternal stress, maternal social supports, maternal depression so that we can tailor our services to meet their strengths and needs.”
Amy Knapke, the Every Child Succeeds coordinator at Brighton Center, said home visitors meet with families in the prenatal year, and then visits are weekly through the first year and move to biweekly once the child turns 2. Referrals come through the health department, hospital or other agencies, or from Brighton’s own programs. In the last fiscal year, the program served 543 parents and their children.
“Parents, especially new parents, have a lot on their plate,” she said. “One way we can meet them is in their home setting.... We go into the home and just sit on the floor, because we know that’s the easiest way, a safe place for the babies. We want to help partner with parents on their parenting journey.”
Knapke noted that 93% of the children in families that participated in the home visit program were found to have age-appropriate cognitive and language skills. This is huge, she said, because it is significant compared to the region’s overall kindergarten readiness scores: Boone County’s score is 54% and Campbell County’s score is 55%, according to the Kentucky Department of Education. It shows the program puts children on a better track to prepare for school, Knapke said.
St. E Behavioral Health
Stacey Gripshover is a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner in St. Elizabeth Healthcare’s Behavioral Health Department. She’s worked in labor and delivery and provided care to women in Baby Steps. She now works with all new moms who are suffering from depression and anxiety during and after pregnancy. She’s seen what this depression can do and focused her practice on helping all moms dealing
with it.
“St. Elizabeth has roughly 4,000 births a year, and we know that one in five women will suffer postpartum depression.That’s roughly 800 potential moms who, if we do not provide proper screening or proper support, could be suffering,” she said.
She noted that the term postpartum depression is very specific. Women can experience a wide range of symptoms that fall into a broader category known as perinatal mood and anxiety disorders.
Gripshover said she is passionate about working to protect maternal mental health. She sees about 50 patients a week that come to her through referrals. She provides one-on-one therapy and can prescribe medications as needed. One of her initial goals is to assure mothers experiencing a wide range of emotions after giving birth that they are not alone.
She is also certified by Postpartum Support International, an organization with a chapter in Northern Kentucky, that runs support groups for new moms suffering after birth. Support, Gripshover said, can make a big difference.
“And the beautiful thing I have witnessed by doing this for the past two and a half years is that you give a mom just a little bit, and she takes it and runs with it and makes it special. And … you can just tell this mom is probably doing way better in her home with this little bit of support than if she had not had it.”
Learn more, get help
For more information and to ask about support, contact: Baby Steps Phone: 859-301-250
Website: stelizabeth.com/care/babysteps-program.
Every Child Succeeds Phone: 513-636-2830
Website: everychildsucceeds.org. Postpartum Support International Phone: 800-944-4773
Website: postpartum.net.
National Maternal Mental Health hotline Phone: 833-852-6262 (833-TLC-MAMA)
New mom Ashley gets a visit from Hayley as part of the Every Child Succeeds program through Brighton Center. Provided | Brighton Center
Veteran mental health services improve; still work to do
By Nathan Granger
Suicide was the 12th leading cause of death for veterans in 2022, the last year for which data is available, according to an annual report on veteran suicide from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The report states that there were 6,407 veteran suicide deaths in the country in 2022, an increase from 2021. In Kentucky, there were 101 veteran suicide deaths in 2022, and the rate of suicide among Kentucky veterans, at 37.5 per 100,000 people, is higher than the rate in the general population, 22.6 per 100,000 people.
Many veterans struggle to return to normal life after leaving the service, an experience that can leave them feeling isolated, said Doug Witt, an Army vet and peer support specialist at NorthKey Community Care. What’s more, veterans, due to their military training, often feel compelled to sacrifice their own well-being for others.
“A lot of veterans take that same mindset out when they get out. You know, put country first,” Witt said. “Another veteran might need help more than me, so I’ll put him first.”
Witt said that stigma around veterans’ mental health has improved over the years, but there are still gaps in service. Veterans who need mental health support in North-
ern Kentucky have some options.
There are government programs like health centers operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs, but access to them can be difficult. The process for getting claims, including mental health claims, covered by the VA can be onerous: It requires filing a claim with an accredited veteran service officer. A medical professional then has to independently verify a veteran’s diagnosis and usually connect it in some way to military service before a vet can receive benefits.
Although there is a VA health center in Flor-
ence, it lacked a dedicated veteran service officer at the time LINK nky wrote this article. The closest place to file a claim directly with the VA is in Cincinnati. The average number of days it took for the VA to reach a decision on a disability claim in January was 146.4 days – nearly five months – according to the VA’s website.
As a result, private sector and legacy service organizations, such as the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans and Veterans of Foreign Wars, are left to pick up the slack.
Witt, for instance, is part of a group called
the Northern Kentucky Service Members, Veterans and Families Suicide Prevention Coalition, a partnership of local service organizations aimed at raising awareness around veteran suicide. He also works with a lot of veterans in his role as a peer counselor. He pointed to DAV, whose national headquarters is in Erlanger and which offers free walk-in help for veterans, as one effective service organization in the region.
DAV, as well as branches of service organizations like the American Legion and the VFW, sometimes have accredited veteran service officers in-house, but the process can still be inaccessible for many, especially when coupled with veterans’ tendency to play down their own struggles. Moreover, VA health centers often have long patient backlogs, so getting services quickly isn’t always possible.
Danny Vickers, quartermaster for VFW Post 6095, advocated for more walk-in services at VA health care centers.
“I believe they should have a provider or two that just sees walk-ins,” he said. “You’re sick, go to the VA in Florence, and you might have to wait, wait some time, but, you know, you’ve got to wait your turn. It would be better than waiting months.”
‘Always here for them’
Institutional problems aside, many of the service organizations that LINK contact-
American Legionnaires in Indiana make Buddy Check phone calls. Provided | American Legion
ed spoke to the importance of cultivating community among veterans.
“We always want to be there for them,” said American Legion Post 203 Commander Chuck Wills. “We invite them if we see an issue that we think we should get involved with. We’re very aggressive with it. We’ll try to bring them in. We’ll talk to them, see what their situations are, and basically tell them that we’re always here to help them.”
One of the American Legion’s flagship programs is called Be The One, which, like some of the other organizations mentioned here, aims to prevent veteran suicide by conducting fundraisers and providing training. It also provides what are called Buddy Checks, wherein legion members reach out to vets to see if they can get them connected to services.
“Buddy Check system is where we just call if we haven’t seen one of our friends for a long time, or we know that someone’s going through some issues, then we call them and see how they’re doing, asking if we can do anything to make life easier for them, and things like that,” Wills said. “We just contact them [and] let them know that we’re always here for them.”
Witt said that another service gap in the region relates to veterans and homelessness.
“Their mental health diagnosis might be the very thing that’s inhibiting them from getting any help,” Witt said. “A lot of the homeless, they’re faceless; they’re invisible. People don’t really see them until plac-
es like NorthKey or the VA – the homeless services they offer – are able to engage, but there’s not enough workers, there’s not enough people to help all the people that need help.”
Rusty Mardis, an Air Force vet who heads up NKU’s Veterans Resource Station, was not optimistic about the services in the region. He advocated for a kind of one-stop shop for veterans, a single place where they could get connected to whatever service they might need, ideally right after vets leave the service and before early problems can get worse.
“If they came in, they’re homeless, they got homeless specialists [at the one-stop shop],” Mardis said. “If [they need] housing, they got housing specialists there. They need to get in touch with the VA, they got the VA sitting there. Mental health capability is also a big one, obviously. Substance abuse is another one. But just to help them at the early stages upstream, to help them transition properly, to help eliminate all those things that can happen downstream.”
Check out information on some of the veterans’ organizations in the chart. If you’re a veteran and you need immediate mental health assistance, call 988, then choose the first option 24/7 to speak with a crisis counselor.
If you’re aware of a veterans organization in Northern Kentucky we missed, send us an email at news@linknky.com. We’ll update the list for the digital version of this article.
Flags planted in memory of veterans who have died by suicide, planted in Covington fall of 2024. Photo by Nathan Granger | LINK nky
By Kenton Hornbeck
EHow NKY Is supporting seniors’ well-being
ighty-one-year-old Carol Worthman called Senior CommUnity Care of Northern Kentucky’s mental health services a lifeline for elderly people. The service has provided her with friendship and camaraderie, something she was missing out on previously.
“To me, it’s a lifeline for elderly people,” she said. “It really is a lifeline.”
As seniors in Northern Kentucky face the challenges of aging, the toll on their men-
tal health is becoming increasingly evident, with loneliness, isolation and chronic health conditions contributing to a growing need for specialized care and support.
The National Council of Aging, a nonprofit that advocates for older Americans, found that up to 25% of adults are living with a mental health condition such as anxiety or depression. In addition, less than half of older Americans living with mental health or substance abuse conditions seek help.
In Kentucky specifically, 19.3% of adults age 65 and older have been diagnosed with
a depressive disorder, including major and minor depression or dysthymia, according to America’s Health Rankings by the UnitedHealth Foundation. This places Kentucky 47th out of 50 states.
One of the primary causes of poor mental health among seniors is aging alone, also referred to as solo aging. This can lead to adverse effects like anxiety, depression and cognitive decline.
“I don’t have a lot of family left, so you’re more or less sitting there twiddling your thumbs, and you’re at anybody’s mercy to go somewhere, to do something,” Worthman said.
Loneliness and isolation can degrade not only mental health, but also physical health. A study published by the University of Utah School of Medicine found that untreated mental health conditions in older adults can lead to diminished functioning, increased disability, increased mortality and slow healing from physical illness.
To combat these trends, local organizations like Senior CommUnity Care of Northern Kentucky are providing seniors with mental health care through the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, or PACE – a Medicare and Medicaid program engineered to help elderly individuals receive comprehensive medical and social services.
Robert McFalls, executive director of Senior CommUnity Care of Northern Kentucky, said that the fraying of familial and social life as people age can lead to adverse mental health outcomes.
“As we age, we become more isolated from other individuals, and so, if you live alone or have limited engagement, like with your family members, then you know that can be really a challenge for an individual who is growing older,” McFalls said. “Sometimes during the aging process, people lose their friends and some of their social network that they have had in place for a while.”
Holistic view of health
Senior CommUnity Care of Northern Kentucky operates in nine counties, including Boone, Kenton, Campbell, Gallatin, Carroll, Owen, Grant and Pendleton. To qualify for the program, individuals must be age 55 and older. The average PACE program participant is 77 years old.
McFalls said Senior CommUnity Care of Northern Kentucky focuses on a holistic approach, offering participants a diverse range of programs and activities to help promote physical health, foster social connection and support emotional well-being. These include activities such as art workshops and group physical therapy classes.
“I like to look at it in a holistic way in terms of health,” McFalls said. “I think you need to
Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman cuts the ribbon to Senior CommUnity Care of Northern Kentucky’s new building in Florence. Provided | Senior CommUnity Care of Northern Kentucky
look at your physical health, your mental health, your emotional health, your spiritual health. I think all components are really, really important and essential to health and well-being.”
Jen Campbell, Senior CommUnity Care’s outreach coordinator, said one of the most common barriers to seniors seeking mental health care is a lack of transportation. This can be especially prevalent if a person has physical disabilities or lives in a rural area without access to public transportation. To alleviate this concern, PACE provides transportation to all participants.
“It’s such a change from my everyday life,” Worthman said. “I get out and enjoy people. I have my therapy, which is very enjoyable. We have lunch together, then we have our recreation. You have everything you need, plus they bring you back and forth.”
Another challenge to senior mental health care is lack of information and community stigma, said Campbell. To break through, she suggests that organizations work to build trust among program participants by being consistent.
“There are different cultures, and sometimes they don’t trust different people. So
seeing a consistent space outreaching to the organizations that are helping that, the limited resources. I think we go on-site and do it, do an assessment, you know, so they see a face from our program at the beginning.”
Besides Senior CommUnity Care of Northern Kentucky, other regional organizations like NorthKey support mental health services for seniors. NorthKey’s services include individual and group counseling sessions to help people address grief and loss or cope with chronic illness. NorthKey partners with local medical institutions like St. Elizabeth to broaden the scope of its programs. Similar to Senior CommUnity Care, NorthKey focuses on a holistic approach.
From McFalls’ perspective, the growing awareness of the mental health of seniors is a net positive. His organization’s mission is to help people age in place, surrounded by a strong support system.
“That the best place for individuals to be is where they can be psychologically happy and mentally well, and, for the vast majority, that’s being able to be able to remain at home, remain safely with the price support system in place,” he said.
Safety: All Drivers undergo thorough background checks and comprehensive safety training to guarantee your peace of mind throughout your journey.
Professionalism: Our team consists of courteous and well-trained drivers dedicated to providing you with the highest standard of service.
Affordable: We believe that quality transportation should be affordable for you.
A U.S. Census Bureau survey found that seniors with a variety of different sociodemographic characteristics are actively struggling with mental health. Provided | U.S. Census Bureau
A group of seniors participating in a group therapy session. Provided | Senior CommUnity Care of Northern Kentucky
Senior CommUnity Care of Northern Kentucky’s new headquarters in Florence. Provided | Senior CommUnity Care of Northern Kentucky
Somebody could intervene way before it even gets to that
By Haley Parnell
Angie Weinel said police social work is like a natural disaster: Everyone shows up at first, but, after the initial assistance, everyone is gone, and that’s when people really start to suffer.
Weinel is a social worker with the Highland Heights Police.
“I kind of look at it as it’s their natural disaster in their own life, coming in the beginning, but also staying until they have that warm handoff to something that’s more sufficient for them, more long term,” she said.
Police social work is expanding across Northern Kentucky. Cities across the region are in the process of hiring police social workers, have added programs or have had programs running for the last few years. The idea is relatively new, but departments are recognizing the gap in services those positions fill.
Weinel said police social work originated in Illinois around the 1970s, where local college students training to be social workers took internships at a police department. Alexandria Police Department’s Kelly Pompilio was the first police social worker in Kentucky; she was hired in 2016.
“I remember sitting in the class at Gateway, and I heard about all these people coming in contact with the police, but then they end up getting arrested or getting in trouble later on in life,” Weinel said. “I was like, ‘It seems like somebody could intervene way before it even gets to that.’ That’s when my professor said, ‘You know what’s really cool is Alexandria just got one.’ That’s when I was like, ‘That’s what I want to do.’”
Weinel is another police social worker hired in the early days of police social work in Northern Kentucky. She was hired in 2021 through a grant as a shared position between the Campbell County Police Department and the Highland Heights Police Department. The departments quickly realized that there was too much work for one person, and so Weinel became fulltime with Highland Heights in 2022, and Campbell County created a new position of its own.
When she started, Weinel had a bachelor’s in social work and got her master’s in her
first year on the job. Before becoming a police social worker, she worked at a nonprofit and a teen residential treatment facility.
Highland Heights Assistant Chief Nick Love said the department was hesitant about adding the position. He said they thought police social workers were coming in to do their jobs, when, in fact, they were coming to relieve some of the department’s stress.
“Around that 2020 time when there was some social unrest and whatnot going around the country, and everybody was demanding and saying, ‘Hey, there’s a need for social workers,’ and we were a little resistant to it,” he said. “We didn’t know what it really was.
“Once she started, we saw the benefits almost immediately,” he said.
Highland Heights’s population is around 9,000, but, with Northern Kentucky University in session, the city could have 20,000 people, leaving it in a unique situation.
One of the main areas that police social workers help police officers with is repeat calls. Weinel said folks with mental health disorders or elderly people who don’t have a family to call know that 911 is always going to pick up the phone.
Love described a situation before Weinel’s hiring where police received calls and went to a specific residence four to six times a
day. “I think within a month, she [Weinel] had [the resident] in a treatment facility,” Love said. “She had her in a position to be successful in her future, with guardianship and people taking care of her.”
Once the officers witnessed that situation, Love said they realized how beneficial Weinel’s position was.
Working in tandem
Police social workers do not respond to calls alone. They are always accompanied by officers, or officers will go and secure a scene and then call them. They also are responsible for the follow-up that comes after the initial call to ensure individuals receive the help they need. Weinel said police social workers are also victim advocates and go to court.
Love recalled a domestic incident when officers worked with Weinel. Domestic incidents can be any dispute, act of violence or report of an alleged offense among members of the same family or household where police intervention occurs. It is not necessarily a violation of the law.
Love said they responded to a residence with an adult and two kids and found their heat had been turned off (before the big snowstorm in January) because they had not paid their bill.
“The victim, she was a little ‘hesitant’ to
deal with us,” Love said. “That happens a lot. So this was a prime example. Our officers are going to go to an active scene; make sure the scene’s safe and then, if it’s needed, we’ll reach out to Angie.”
Weinel was called in this case. Within minutes, Love said Weinel contacted the electric company, got the heat running and gave the woman a working cellphone.
Similarly to how the Highland Heights program came to existence, Weinel is now supervising interns at Southgate and Wilder Police departments, which do not have their own police social worker programs.
Opioid settlement funding
More recently, the Boone County Sheriff’s Office began its program in July with three full-time police social workers. Laura Pleiman, director of Boone County Community Services and Programs, said that, when the county became aware of its opioid settlement funds, conversations arose about investing in police social workers.
Kentucky is set to receive $478 million as its share of two national settlement agreements. The agreements require manufacturers and distributors who flooded the states with opioids to settle 4,000 claims by state and local governments that they created and fueled the opioid epidemic.
Boone County is set to receive an estimated $4.6 million distributed in yearly allotments until 2038, according to a database published by the Kentucky Association of Counties.
Similarly, the Campbell County Police Department made a move in December, using its opioid settlement funds to hire three additional police social workers, bringing the county’s total to four positions: one supervisor and three police social workers.
Those positions serve the primary police jurisdiction, which are unincorporated Campbell County, Silver Grove and some smaller cities without police departments, such as Melbourne, California, Crestview and Mentor. Additionally, Bellevue and Dayton entered an interlocal agreement with the county to share social worker services.
The Newport Police Department on Dec. 17 advertised a police social worker position. The department also plans to use opioid
Boone County Sheriff’s Department Maj. Aaron Milson, third from left, stands with the department’s social workers, from left, Jared Owens, Chelsea Chorley and Megan Green. Provided | Boone County
settlement funds to pay for the role.
Saving a life
Jared Owens is a police social worker at the Boone County Sheriff’s Office. Before becoming a police social worker, Owens was a probation officer and worked in mental health court, a voluntary program for people with mental illness who are charged with misdemeanors or felonies.
Before becoming a police social worker, Owens said he wasn’t particularly familiar with the roles. He heard about the position from a friend at the sheriff’s office.
Like Weinel, Owens said his role is to help with repeat calls that the office receives. He points to a situation he helped mitigate when he arrived at the sheriff’s office.
The office received multiple calls from concerned citizens about a man in a wheelchair with umbrellas trying to shade him from the hot summer sun. Owens said the man wasn’t doing anything wrong; he was unhoused and experiencing mental health issues.
“The police did not want to arrest them,” Owens said. “They did not want to charge him with anything, but they can only do so much. So, we were able to get him mental health treatment, and then, ultimately, they found placement for him.”
Pleiman said that Owens suggested they look at the people who had already responded to the man in that situation. They all happened to be men, so he recommended sending out a female police social worker and female deputy to help.
“They were able to work with the Boone County Attorney’s Office to get a mental health warrant to get that individual into treatment and, I don’t think it’s too much to say, saving his life,” Pleiman said. “It was pretty impressive, the immediate kind of impact into the community here, and especially the sheriff’s office. I think it really sold the worth of the program pretty quickly for the deputies here.”
‘Same thing over and over’
In Kenton County, the Independence Police Department is just beginning its program. The department officially hired its police social worker the week of Jan. 13.
Sgt. George Kreutzjans is spearheading the program. He said there were places in the city or residences to which officers were responding a lot.
“Whether it be domestics or elderly people with dementia, we were going back to [them] regularly – mental health issues in general,” he said. “We were really frustrated going back, and the same thing happened over and over, and nothing got improved.”
Kreutzjans said the police were being forced to become social workers in addition to the other things that they do, and they don’t have the resources social workers have. Kreutzjans said that, even after doing his job for 25 years, he wasn’t too familiar with police social workers or the need for them until a specific instance involving an elderly man.
Kreutzjans said the man was a veteran who had lost some of the services he had been receiving. The man was not computer savvy. He had been attempting to connect to service providers on the phone, but he was getting the workaround and was getting overwhelmed.
“He was so upset, he was becoming depressed, he couldn’t function and he just needed somebody to walk him through those systems, to find those services,” Kreutzjans said. “He was going to get kicked out of his home. He had no family in the area and no children. His wife had passed. It was a really hard situation.”
Kreutzjans said officers spent two hours with him, trying to calm him down and then figuring out which resources to connect him to. He said a social worker would have made a difference in this situation.
The department also had a repeat case of a man with dementia straying from his home. Kreutzjans said a social worker could have met with the man’s spouse and discussed resources to keep him safe.
Kreutzjans said the department looked at others with the program – Erlanger, Alexandria, Boone County and Highland Heights – and determined what would work for them. The department had 43 applicants for the position.
Whether it’s Independence, Highland Heights or Boone County, each entity agrees that police social work programs
are growing.
Ownes said he thinks the trend comes from recognizing that people need help and treatment more than they need to be locked up and that they can use their toolbelt of resources that police officers may
not be aware of.
“I’m glad that people in Northern Kentucky, the state of Kentucky, United States, are seeing the benefits of what police social workers can do,” Love said. “I suggest that every agency get one. I really do.”
Megan Green, seated, and, standing from left, Chelsea Chorley, Jared Owens and Lt. Nate Becker, work at the Boone County Sheriff’s office. Provided | Boone County
Angie Weinel, middle, and her two interns from Southgate and Wilder Police Departments attend a training session. Provided | Angie Weinel
By Maggy McDonel
NExplore unique, innovative recreation outdoors
orthern Kentucky’s unique landscape has inspired so many to get out in nature, and several innovative programs have popped up around the region to make it an ever more exciting place to explore.
Schack’s Yaks
One of the more prominent aspects of our geography is, of course, its rivers.
The mighty Ohio and its tributary, the Licking, define and run through or past Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties.
“The River cities,” as they are called, butt up to the Ohio River and run from Dayton to Bromley. These cities are just that, cities, and, as Christopher Schack knows, that can create some issues for kayakers.
“I live out in Alexandria,” Schack told LINK. “I have an acre of property. I have plenty of spots to place a kayak, but, when you go down to Newport, you don’t have as many options because it is a dense urban environment.”
Schack’s company, Schack’s Yaks, has an innovative twofold program: It provides lockers so those with kayaks can store them by the river so they don’t have to lug them around and find creative storage solutions. It also offers hourly rentals in kayak kiosks for people looking to take a quick trip on the river.
The first kayak kiosk the company put together was in Augusta. The company placed one in Newport after it was approached by city officials who wanted a creative solution to their urban kayaking problem.
“It was an issue that we were presented, and I think we did a pretty good job of addressing it,” Schack said.
Here’s how the kayak kiosk works. Prospective kayakers must download an app, which can be found at schacksyaks.com; then they scan a QR code, which in turn will pop open the door to a locker that has a kayak, a life jacket and a paddle.
You can then take out the kayak, leave your stuff in the locker (other than your phone, because you’ll need it to reopen the locker), and head out onto the river. You’ll be charged by the hour through the app. When you’re done, drop the kayak back in the locker.
The kayak kiosk in Newport is the the only one in NKY, but Schack said he’s hoping to expand into other river cities.
“The river was always just kind of a backdrop, and that was it,” Schack said. “There weren’t really activities on it other than just kind of watching it. So it’s cool to be able to add something to a waterway that’s always been there.”
Riverfront Commons
“The front porch of the South” is the motto for the proposed 20-mile multiuse path running from Devou Park to Pendery Park along the south bank of the Ohio River.
The Riverfront Commons project hopes to “create an unbridled destination for every season of life,” said Will Weber, CEO of Southbank Partners, which created and operates the riverwalk.
The riverwalk, once complete, will stretch 20 miles through eight cities and will include 14 trailheads and seven overlooks. At the moment, five miles have been completed; three miles have been designed or engineered, thanks to a federal Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity grant, and 12 miles have been planned.
Part of the purpose of the walk is to get people out and supporting businesses along it; the walk runs through the urban river cities, and Weber said the map “shows that a riverfront park in an urban area is blocks away from a downtown business district.”
On top of building the path, Weber said the project will also enhance parks the riverwalk connects to, building out trailheads and developing overlooks.
“We’re really just helping enhance this world-class active destination on our riverfront,” Weber said.
Park updates
While we’ve been talking about several additions to Northern Kentucky’s recreation landscape, there’s also a lot going on in the existing infrastructure.
In Boone County, the parks department is doing a lot to improve and expand its facilities. The department recently purchased the Rivershore Sports Park baseball complex, according to parks director David Whitehouse, who said he hopes to provide fields for the community.
“We have a little over 4,200 kids playing baseball in Boone County, between boys baseball, girls softball and adults,” Whitehouse said. The six new fields within this complex will help facilitate games for several different leagues.
Whitehouse is always open to new and even unique ideas for outdoor recreation at his parks. He was approached by Oakwood resident Kevin Spanier, who was using radio-controlled cars on the BMX track in England Idlewild Park and wanted to build a dedicated track for radio-controlled vehicles.
He asked Spanier what he needed to get the track done, and Spanier said he needed dirt, so they dropped off two truckloads of it. Soon, Spanier completed the track by himself, and the track hosted its first RC competition, which had over 40 racers, in the fall of 2024.
Another unique sport (at least to the United States) now at Boone County Parks is cricket. Whitehouse said that, about three years ago, he noticed a group had set up a wicket at the Central Park & Arboretum and that they were playing some game he didn’t know. He approached them and asked what the game was, and “next thing, you know, now, almost three years later, we have two teams, and they play matches.”
After adding a second team, Whitehouse said they now have around 50-60 people in their cricket league. He watches most of the home matches; he’s even been invited over to watch games at members’ houses, “but I haven’t gone to the point that I’m going to go at 3 a.m. and hang out and watch cricket.”
The Schack’s Yaks rental kiosk in Newport is one-of-a-kind in the region. Provided | Schack’s Yaks
By Haley Parnell
LExplore these parks for boating, fishing, more
ooking for the best spots to cast a line, paddle a kayak or take a refreshing dip? These spots in Northern Kentucky have you covered.
Here are some suggestions for where to go for water-based recreational activities like kayaking, fishing and more.
A.J. Jolly Park
Kayaking and canoeing: Explore the 200acre A.J. Jolly Lake by renting a kayak or canoe.
Paddle boating: For a leisurely experience, paddle boats are available for rent. They are ideal for families and groups.
Stand-up paddleboarding: For those seeking a blend of relaxation and exercise, stand-up paddleboards are offered.
Fishing: Anglers can take advantage of the lake’s fish populations, including catfish,
crappie, largemouth bass, saugeye and bluegill. A valid Kentucky fishing license is required.
Boating: The lake does not have a boat motor size restriction, but it is a no-wake lake.
Find out more information on the county’s website, campbellcountyky.gov.
Boating: The 183-acre Kincaid Lake permits boats with motors up to 10 horsepower. Visitors can bring their own boats or rent from the park, which offers pedal boats, canoes, kayaks, johnboats and pontoons. The marina is open daily during the camping season, April to October. Boat rentals are coordinated through the country store/gift shop and are on a first-come, first-served basis.
Fishing: Anglers can fish for species like
largemouth bass, channel catfish, bluegill, sunfish and crappie. A valid Kentucky fishing license is required.
Swimming: The park has a junior Olympic-sized swimming pool, providing a designated area for visitors to swim and cool off. The pool is open daily Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Find out more information at the state park’s website at parks.ky.gov/explore/kincaid-lake-state-park-7816
Kincaid Lake: 749 Kincaid Park Road, Falmouth; bit.ly/40XcuNd; 859-654-3531.
Boone’s Landing Marina
Boating: The marina provides boat ramp access and marina docking on the Ohio River.
Fishing: The marina provides day fishing. Past fishing catch reports include bluegill, redear sunfish, channel and blue catfish, hybrid striped bass, and white, smallmouth and largemouth bass.
Boone County Landing Marina: 14036 Boat Dock Road, Union; bit.ly/41aDEBL; 859-3849800.
Alexandria Community Park
Fishing: The park features a 9-acre fishing lake with a handicap-accessible fishing pier. The lake stocks largemouth bass, rainbow trout, bluegill, redear sunfish, and
blue and channel catfish.
Alexandria Community Park: 3965 Alexandria Drive; alexandriaky.org/community-park; 859-635-4125.
Fredericks Landing
Frederick’s Landing is located along the Licking River and is open year-round. It offers a boat launch for kayaking and canoeing.
Doe Run Lake is approximately 30 acres and offers fishing and a boat ramp.
Doe Run Lake Park: 1501 Bullock Pen Road, Covington; bit.ly/4gLJEWk; 859-392-1400.
General James Taylor Park
Schack’s Yaks offers kayak rentals and year-round seasonal personal kayak storage in Newport. It opens every day at 7 a.m. and closes for the last rental to be scanned out no later than two and a half hours before sunset.
All kayaks include a universal life jacket and paddle. They also have two fishing rod holders, cup holders and a cargo area.
Pickleball surges in popularity with players of all ages
By Nathan Granger
It’s impossible to talk about outdoor recreation these days without talking about pickleball. More than 48 million adult Americans played the sport in 2023, according to the Association of Pickleball professionals. Now, people of all ages across the country – and Northern Kentucky – are getting in on the action.
“It’s great exercise and really good just mingling with nice people, so the social part is huge,” said Barbara Ruh, who coordinates the social media accounts for a group of pickleball players who practice every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning at the Five Seasons Sports Club in Crestview Hills.
The group is one of the longest running pickleball groups in the region. It all started when a group of friends traveled to the Villages, a large retirement community in Florida, about 35 years ago. David “Skip” Egbers and Bob Durrett were both introduced to the sport in Florida, got hooked and decided to bring it back to Northern Kentucky.
“So one day, [Egbers] said, ‘Well, why don’t we do this back home?’” Durrett said. “We’ll get some people together and start playing. And I said, ‘All right, you get one, and I’ll get one.’ He says, ‘Well, I don’t know any tennis players?’ I said, ‘All right, I’ll get two guys.’ I got two players, and we started playing pickleball at Five Seasons.”
The Five Seasons didn’t let them play inside at first because they were afraid the noise would disrupt the tennis players, but they let them play outside.
“Now, Five Seasons has 18 courts inside and any number of courts outside,” Egbers said.
The game dates to the 1960s on Bainbridge Island in Washington, where a trio of friends – Barney McCallum, Bill Bell and Joel Pritchard, who would later serve as Washington’s lieutenant governor and a representative for the state in Congress – began experimenting with wooden paddles and balls on a badminton court.
Although today the game is often associated with older adults, initially it was designed as a way to keep kids occupied.
“It was a typical, bad weather day on this beach, rainy and wet,” said Barney Mc-
Callum in an interview with the Pickleball Channel. “And so, the kids were driving the adults crazy, so Joel [Pritchard] said, ‘Take this paddle and this ball and go up to the badminton court and hit it around.’”
In the subsequent months, the three men developed the sport into something more closely resembling what’s played today. The sport has only grown in popularity since then. Locally, there are now pickleball courts in parks around the region, and many exercise facilities usually make room for courts as tennis and badminton courts are easily converted for pickleball.
Everyone who spoke with LINK nky said the same thing when asked why the game had become so popular: Anyone can play it, barring serious mobility issues. The rules are easy to understand, and it doesn’t require the same level of physicality as something like tennis.
“I’m 93, and I’m still playing,” said Durrett.
“Pickleball is fun,” said Darron Scanlon, CEO of the Players Pickleball Club. “It’s physical. You enjoy the activity quite a bit. You can do it with your girlfriend, your wife, your spouse, all ages, all genders. You don’t have to be an incredible athlete to play and have fun.”
The Players Pickleball Club hasn’t opened yet, but Scanlon is working to establish a facility in Richwood in Boone County. The goal, Scanlon said, is not only to have a place where anyone can come and (inexpensively) play but also for it to serve as a hub for tournament play. Scanlon also hopes to include a pro shop, where players can try out and buy paddles and other equipment in person, rather than ordering online or through the mail.
He said the business’s goal is to become something like the “Top Golf of Pickleball,” adding he had ambitions of expanding his business beyond Greater Cincinnati to metropolitan areas across the country. The plan is to open the facility’s outdoor courts later this year; the indoor courts should open in 2026.
“It makes people bond as friends when they get out there,” Egbers said. “So, it’s not a game that’s going to be too competitive to make you upset, but it’s a lot of fun.”
Members of the Five Seasons group play in Ludlow in 2014. Provided | Pickleball Northern Kentucky
Players at the Five Seasons Sport Club, which now sports 18 indoor pickleball courts. Provided | Pickleball Northern Kentucky
A diagram of a tournament pickleball court as standardized by the USA Pickleball Association. Games played in informal settings may deviate from this layout depending on available facilities. Provided: USA Pickleball Association
By Kenton Hornbeck
NWhere to play disc golf around NKY
orthern Kentucky is a hotbed of disc golf, a niche sport that has rapidly grown in popularity over the past decade.
According to the Disc Golf Growth Report 2024, there are over 15,000 disc golf courses worldwide — double the number at the end of 2017. Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties collectively have 10, with the cities of Burlington, Florence, and Alexandria boasting multiple.
Greater Cincinnati is nationally considered a hotbet for the game, with over 50 courses located within a 30-mile radius of downtown Cincinnati. Ryan Friebert, former president of the Greater Cincinnati Disc Golf Association, told LINK nky that local courses are routinely packed.
“It’s like the places that you will go to get a quiet round in; there’s no longer an opportunity because the course is just packed,” Friebert said. “If the weather is good, it’s going to be very, very busy, and, even on days where the weather is terrible, there’s still going to be people out playing disc golf.”
Northern Kentucky is also home to England Idlewild Park, the site of the LWS Open, a premier event on the Disc Golf Pro Tour. Since 2017, the event has attracted some of the sport’s top professional players and attracts thousands of people to Northern Kentucky annually.
“It’s an opportunity for people across the nation to see a course that the pros struggle at on, certain shots, certain holes,” Friebert said. “Anytime that you get that level of visibility, this suddenly becomes a destination.”
The COVID-19 pandemic aided in the rise of disc golf’s popularity. Since courses are outdoors, they remained open. Additionally, disc golf was social distancing-friendly, allowing players to spread out during a match.
Unlike traditional golf, disc golf is a cost-effective way to challenge yourself in an outdoor setting. Courses offer players various hazards, such as throwing discs over lakes and bending them around trees from varying distances and angles.
“It’s a very, very low cost to get involved in the sport, and it is a very cost-efficient
sport, even to get competitively involved in,” he said. “There’s basically a tournament involved, a tournament almost every single weekend throughout the regular season, from spring, early spring until late, early winter.”
So, what are the top courses in Northern Kentucky? What challenges do the courses present for even the most skilled players?
Idlewild Disc Golf Course – Burlington
Idlewild is one of the most challenging and highly rated courses in the world. The 18hole course offers a demanding layout with a mix of wooded and open fairways, water hazards and significant elevation changes. It hosts the annual LWS Open and is a premier destination for advanced players seeking a top-tier disc golf experience.
Boone Woods Disc Golf Course – Burlington
Boone Woods is a more approachable 18hole course with a mix of open and wooded holes, offering a balance of fun and challenge. Established in 1985, it’s a classic course in the area that’s ideal for intermediate players or those looking for a more
laid-back round compared to Idlewild.
Devou Park Disc Golf Course – Covington
Devou Park’s 18-hole course, opened in 2022, is designed to challenge all skill levels while offering clear views of the Cincinnati skyline. It features a mix of terrain and hole lengths, making it a must-play for those who enjoy technical courses with scenic beauty.
A.J. Jolly Disc Golf Course – Alexandria
A.J. Jolly is one of the oldest courses in Northern Kentucky. Established in 1985, this 18-hole course features lakeside views with manicured parkscapes in the background. A.J. Jolly, located in south central Campbell County, comprises rolling hills that present challenges for beginners and experienced players alike.
Lincoln Ridge Park – Independence
Lincoln Ridge Park features a 24-hole course that combines wooded and open holes for a balanced and enjoyable experience. Its layout is beginner-friendly while still challenging experienced players.
Players enjoying Devou Park’s Disc Golf Course. Provided | City of Covington, Sam Greenhill
A.J. Jolly Park features one of the oldest disc golf courses in Northern Kentucky. Photo by Kenton Hornbeck | LINK nky
Work out, but make it fun
By Maggy McDonel
Sometimes, working out can feel like … well, work.
If you’re feeling like you need to get a workout in, but you don’t really want to work that hard, and you need a drink, look no further.
We’ve found several different places across Northern Kentucky where you can grab a drink and get some sort of exercise, whether that’s a workout for your brain during trivia, golf in various ways, bowling, sand volleyball or even a workout for your dog.
Read on for recommendations for recreation and libations.
Block, bump and beer
Once the weather warms up, several Northern Kentucky spots offer sand volleyball and sand volleyball leagues. Whether you’re looking to play just a quick casual game or gathering a group of friends to form a league, these places offer a spot to play sand volleyball and grab a drink.
• Dickmann’s Sports Barn: 479 Orphanage Road, Fort Wright.
• PeeWee’s Place: 2325 Anderson Road, Crescent Springs.
Swing and a sip
• Devou Park Golf Course: 1201 Park Drive, Covington.
• Twin Oaks Golf: 450 E 43rd St., Covington.
• The Golf Courses of Kenton County: 3908 Richardson Road, Independence.
• Meadowood Golf Course: 1911 Golf Club Drive, Burlington.
Sip and strike
There’s nothing like a beer and a round of bowling, right? While it might not be the most physically exhausting workout, bowling still gets you moving and is also a great way to spend some time with family and friends (unless you get too competitive, that is). Check out these bowling alleys where you can enjoy a drink while (hopefully) getting a strike.
• Velocity Esports: 1 Levee Way, Suite 2130, Newport.
• Full Throttle Adrenaline: Park 24 Spiral Drive, Florence.
• La Ru Bowling Lanes: 2443 Alexandria
There are tons of golf courses in Northern Kentucky. While joining a club can be pricey, there are several courses where you can snag a tee time, enjoy the outdoors, get some exercise and have a drink or two or more. Grab your clubs and some beer, and check out these NKY courses that don’t require a membership.
Whether you’re a golfer looking to practice in bad weather or a beginner who doesn’t want to invest in all the equipment, you can head over to one of NKY’s indoor golf simulators. Whether you’re renting, practicing or just watching a friend play, you can grab a drink at any of these establishments.
• 19th Hole Indoor Golf: 8537 U.S. 42, Florence.
• Always In Play: 90 Alexandria Pike, Suite 15, Fort Thomas.
If you have a dog in your house, you know they need to play or they start destroying stuff. The Bark Park & Patio in Florence offers a space for your pup to get the zoomies out and for you to relax with a drink. The taproom offers several classic and local brews from pour-your-own taps. Before you go, ensure your dog is over four months old, fully vaccinated (with paperwork), spayed or neutered and plays well with others.
• The Bark Park & Patio: 7544 Burlington Pike, Florence. Day passes, $10; monthly passes, $30 per dog.
Work your brain
Does bar trivia really count as exercise? Well, we’re going to say it does. It’s a workout for your brain, at least. Here are some local joints offering weekly trivia:
A puppy hopes for a bite of its owner’s burger at the Bark Park and Patio. Provided | Bark Park and Patio Facebook
The top three items brought to the Northern Kentucky Household Hazardous Waste Collection Event are:
1. Electronics* & Batteries
2. General hazardous material (chemicals)
3. Car fluids
Other items include, but are not limited to:
• WHAT ARE SOME COMMON HOUSEHOLD HAZARDOUS PRODUCTS?
• Tanks and cylinders (helium, propane, fire extinguisher)
• Household cleaners
• Prescription drugs
• Pesticides
• Solvents
• Paints
• Aerosols
FIND LOCAL VENDORS TO DISPOSE OF YOUR HOUSEHOLD HAZARDOUS WASTE
Local hazardous waste vendors properly process and either recycle or dispose of HHW. Proper disposal comes with a price, so majority of organizations and businesses will charge some sort of fee based on the type of item dropped off.
