![](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/c254993/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1406x1875+47+0/resize/150x200!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fmediad.publicbroadcasting.net%2Fp%2Fkwmu%2Ffiles%2F201804%2Fsfentem_01-web.jpg)
Sarah Fentem
Sarah Fentem reports on sickness and health as part of St. Louis Public Radio’s news team. She previously spent five years reporting for different NPR stations in Indiana, immersing herself deep, deep into an insurance policy beat from which she may never fully recover. A longitme NPR listener, she grew up hearing WQUB in Quincy, Illinois, which is now owned by STLPR. She lives in the Kingshighway Hills neighborhood, and in her spare time likes to watch old sitcoms, meticulously clean and organize her home and go on outdoor adventures with her fiancé Elliot. She has a cat, Lil Rock, and a dog, Ginger.
-
The federal government debuted the 988 mental health crisis hotline in 2022. While Missouri answers more than 9 out of 10 calls, a report finds the state needs more follow-up care.
-
Missouri’s long-term care ombudsman program organizes workers and volunteers to advocate for and educate residents at the state’s hundreds of nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities. But it has fewer than half the recommended staff members.
-
A St. Louis nursing home’s overnight closure in late 2023 upended the lives of more than 170 residents and families. Advocates and politicians called for its directors to be held accountable, but a $56,000 fine from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services could be the only penalty.
-
Rob Connoley was a finalist for "Best Chef Midwest" at this year's James Beard Awards, sometimes referred to as “the food Oscars.” His lauded St. Louis restaurant Bulrush gained national recognition for its food inspired by traditional Ozark cuisine.
-
Circuit Judge Jason Sengheiser said it was not up to the court to make a judgment on the soundness of the abortion policy but whether its language violated the constitution.
-
Around 14% of all staff positions at Missouri hospitals were vacant in 2023. That rate is lower than it was at the height of the pandemic, but still higher than in 2019.
-
More than two-thirds of local governments had not spent any of the funds they received from suing drug companies and distributors over the opioid crisis. Missouri law requires that the money be used for treatment, prevention and other addiction abatement.
-
A federal rule will require long-term care facilities to have a minimum number of nursing staff on hand at all times to take care of residents.
-
Total solar eclipses occur every year or two, but it is exceedingly rare for the paths of two of them to intersect only a handful of years apart, as it has in a swath of southern Missouri and Illinois.
-
Missouri was one of only four states, along with Georgia, Iowa and Texas, that saw an increase in infant mortality between 2021 and 2022, according to federal data. And Black women are dying at much higher rates than their white counterparts.