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California Health Report
Opinion: It’s Time to Fulfill Our Promise to Teachers, Students and Parents
The start of a new school year should be marked by excitement, nerves and, perhaps, more than a little yearning for a longer summer. But this year, the return to school is different. For the last two years, isolation, fear, confusion and uncertainty have taken a toll on our children’s...
Wildfire Smoke Is Hurting Pregnant People And Babies. Can California Cities Protect Them?
Tania Pacheco-Werner put on her walking shoes. She was halfway through her first pregnancy and had just been diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Her doctor’s advice? Stay active. But Pacheco-Werner lives just outside Fresno. It was summer, and well over 100 degrees. The air outside was also thick with wildfire...
Most Older Adults Want to Live at Home. Here’s How California Can Make it Easier
Three weeks after her 84-year-old mother entered a skilled nursing facility for rehabilitation from a serious fall Carmen Brammer received a call. “Come get your mother,” Brammer recalled a staff member telling her. “We’re going to put her on the curb if you don’t come get her.”
Analysis: Black Californians Want Better Health Care. Here’s How We Can Achieve It
Contra Costa County resident Kam Shaw is just one example of a Black Californian who feels shortchanged by our health care system. In July, Shaw, whose name has been changed to protect her medical privacy, tried to get an urgent appointment for pain in her foot. The pain escalated over the course of two days. On the third day, she called her doctor’s office at 6 a.m. hoping to secure a same-day appointment. She didn’t hear back until 4 p.m., by which time she was in extreme pain and barely able to walk.
Opinion: California Missed An Opportunity to Protect Children From Social Media
California children can and do get addicted to social media. A bill introduced this year, Assembly Bill 2408, would have allowed public prosecutors — the attorney general and district attorneys — to bring civil lawsuits against social media giants who knowingly addict children. This important first step in holding the companies who profit from these digital apps accountable for the harm they cause passed the Assembly. But a Senate committee held it in “suspense,” a black hole where controversial bills are parked indefinitely with no explanation required.
Analysis: We Can Talk About Abortion Without Being Ableist
I made the choice to continue a high-risk pregnancy, but I honor the choice of any pregnant person who opts to terminate given the same set of facts. I trust them to understand their financial ability to support a child with major medical care needs. I trust them to decide whether they’re emotionally and spiritually ready to handle a pregnancy that may still result in the child’s death even with the best interventions. I trust them to judge whether their partners will be supportive during a complex pregnancy — domestic violence homicide is the leading cause of death during pregnancy, and abortion can be a lifesaving way to escape an abusive partner. I trust those who are pregnant to take care of their own health as they make these decisions.
Preparing for Wildfires With Evacuation Plans, Emergency Supplies – And Domestic Violence Awareness
It’s been more than three years since the Camp Fire leveled the California town of Paradise. But for domestic violence counselor Marlen Hernandez and the clients she serves, the traumatic effects continue to rage. About six months after the fire in November 2018, calls for help to Catalyst Domestic...
Opinion: California’s Offering Health Care to More People Than Ever, But We Need to Let Them Know About It
Every year the California Legislature passes hundreds of bills to help people across the state, from making investments in rent and utility relief to providing unprecedented funds to protect access to reproductive justice. In California’s quest to achieve a state that truly serves all, we have made great strides to...
Opinion: Bill to Strengthen Paid Family Leave is Good Medicine
In medical school, doctors learn how to treat sick patients. But to heal, the patients who come into my office in a Sacramento community clinic need more than medicine — they need the food, shelter and other necessities their family incomes provide. California’s Paid Family Leave and State Disability Insurance programs are sadly failing families by not providing a realistic amount of income. Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers have a chance to change that by adopting Senate Bill 951, which would enable low-wage workers — the majority women and people of color — to access benefits that truly support them when they need it most.
Opinion: Most Vulnerable Foster Youth Left Behind in State Budget
California’s budget this year has a $100 billion surplus, and individual taxpayers are scheduled to receive over $9 billion in checks for inflation relief. Yet California’s foster youth who need specialized programs and behavioral health services have been left out. At the California Alliance, we hear story after...
Opinion: California Must Clear the Way for More Mental Health Professionals to Practice 
It’s no secret that the nation is suffering from a mental health crisis. At the same time, we have a vast shortage of therapists to meet the needs of those in our communities who are calling for help. One would naturally conclude that our governments, state agencies, and federal...
As Wildfires Grow, So Does California’s Housing and Homelessness Crisis. Here Are Some Solutions
This story was produced as part of a collaboration with the Center for Public Integrity, Columbia Journalism Investigations and Type Investigations. At an assistance center for wildfire survivors in Quincy, Californians lined up to speak with Matt Plotkin and other relief staff. One after another, they told the stories of how their homes had burned to the ground.
Trapped in Harm’s Way as Disasters Mount
SMITHFIELD, Va. — When flooding from Hurricane Floyd in 1999 destroyed Betty Ricks’ home, she rebuilt. Several years later, she posed proudly for a Christmas photograph beside her daughter and granddaughter in her new living room. Then another flood — brought by Tropical Storm Ernesto in 2006 —...
Opinion: We Need More Mental Health Resources to Tackle Childhood Anxiety
As the pandemic continues, mounting what may be another wave of infections, it’s time to stop and reflect on the mental health crisis we’re facing today, especially among our children. I’m the volunteer state coordinator for the Selective Mutism Association, a parent and a former school nurse, and I’m seeing the urgent need to make mental health services more accessible for children and their families.
Disability Often Intersects with Domestic Violence. Here’s How to Better Help Survivors
I discovered I had a disability before I realized I was in an abusive relationship, but the two were interwoven in my life for many years. My disability, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, made it difficult to cope with my daily life, let alone navigate the violent relationship I was in. My habits and compulsions were gradually consuming all my time and energy. But my relationship made it much more difficult to seek treatment and stay on life-changing medications.
Opinion: The Gun Violence That Doesn’t Make the News
I’ve taken care of more children with gunshot wounds than appendicitis. I’m a pediatric intern at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, a safety-net hospital in Los Angeles County. When I decided to go into pediatrics, I pictured helping children and their families with broken bones, asthma and ear infections, as well as some chronic diseases, such as diabetes. I never imagined how often I would take care of children trying to heal from the physical and mental trauma of being shot.
In South Los Angeles, A Community Poisoned by Oil
This story was produced in collaboration with High Country News and Grist. When I visited Christina Gonzalez and her family in April, she sat slumped in her family’s worn black faux-leather couch, trying to recall which explosion had shaken her neighborhood the most. The seven decades they’ve lived in Wilmington, California, are marked by the dates of the high-octane industrial fires that have erupted at each of the five refineries that surround their home.
Opinion: How the Workforce Shortage Is Affecting Patient Care
Alarms beeped and monitors flashed as nurses rushed to the corner of the neonatal intensive care unit. I heard the commotion, and I immediately knew they were dashing to our sickest baby, who had been born after just 26 weeks of pregnancy. The baby had survived for 35 days. But now, my little survivor was in peril.
California Finally Pays for Summer Programs for Children with Disabilities, But Access Hurdles Remain
Tyler Wetsch dreams of hosting his own YouTube channel. Like many teens his age, the 15-year-old loves to watch videos on social media and leave comments on his favorites. But Tyler has Down syndrome and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, so his parents want to give him additional safety training before he spends unmonitored time online. It seems like a simple enough request, his mother, Carrie Wetsch said. But due to COVID-19 and the legacy of deep state budget cuts, actually enrolling children and adults with developmental disabilities in life-skills trainings and recreation programs like summer camps often takes tireless advocacy. The result is a segregated system where Californians with resources or who live in the right areas can access these programs, while many others — particularly those who are low-income, living in rural areas or are from families that speak a language other than English — may go without.
Analysis: My Mom Lost Disability Benefits Like Thousands of Californians — This Is The Wrong Way to Prevent Fraud
Late last year, my mother lost access to State Disability Insurance. Like thousands of other Californians, this was not due to any of her own missteps — it was an overreaction of the state as it tries to crack down on fraud. The unintended consequence is that people like...
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