By Mike Sherry, HCF guest blogger and KHI News Service journalist

We all know that low-income families often don’t have access to healthy foods. We also know that poverty exists in suburbia.

Those facts led some Johnson County officials to, uh, plow new ground in Olathe.

By Mike Sherry, HCF guest blogger and KHI News Service journalist

Officials in Johnson County are about to kick off a process that distributes more than a million dollars each year to fight substance abuse within the county’s schools and communities.

And, the funding comes courtesy of liquor sales.

Since the late 1970s, Kansas has imposed a 10 percent tax on alcoholic drinks sold by clubs, caterers and drinking establishments.

Mike Sherry will be joining The Local Health Buzz blog once a week as a guest blogger to share his observations on activities in the health care field within HCF’s service area.

By Mike Sherry, HCF guest blogger and KHI News Service journalist

If there’s one thing that has stood out to me in the makeover of the Kansas Medicaid program, it is the doggedness of advocates for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

By Suzanne Wikle, director of policy and research at Kansas Action for Children

By Tanya Dorf Brunner, executive director of Oral Health Kansas, Inc.

People often talk about the importance of access to health care. At Oral Health Kansas, we believe access to oral health care is of critical importance for all Kansans, and we believe one of the keys is ensuring people have a way to pay for dental services.

The championship round of Health Madness mirrored last night’s championship game between Louisville and Michigan — game full of excitement with two teams worthy of competing for the top spot.

There were lead changes, some fast breaks, answered quickly by votes from the other team, and ultimately a win decided by one point.

Your Health Madness champion is ... [drum roll] …

Essential Mental Health Benefits!

We said this at the beginning of Health Madness: we think every single one of the 64 prevention strategies (and, some that didn’t make the tournament, truth be told) is a winner.

But, wow. Color us yellow, because we are shocked (get it? color us yellow for the Wichita State University Shockers? Ok, moving on, then.) by the final two prevention strategies.

Without further ado, your two championship teams: