Blog

Recorded live October 28, 2019. Find the slides attached below. The webinar recording: You will learn: how climate change creates personal, family, and community traumas and toxic stresses; how those traumatic stressors trigger feedbacks that expand and aggravate ACEs and many other person, social, community, and societal maladies; why current approaches are woefully inadequate to address what is already occurring and rapidly steaming toward us and why prevention is the only realistic...

The National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) provides rich data on multiple, intersecting aspects of children’s lives—including physical and mental health, access to quality health care, and the child’s family, neighborhood, school, and social context. The Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health (DRC), under a cooperative agreement with the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), announced the release of the child and...

Going to see a health care provider is often a frustrating and demeaning experience for people of color, as well as those who are LGBTQ or have disabilities, according to a preliminary report by the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network. The health advocacy group collected testimony from dozens of health care consumers, including Asian and Latino immigrants in Southern California, Native American residents in Sacramento, LGBTQ individuals in Ventura County, black women in Los Angeles, and...

As California fire seasons worsen, organizations serving first responders are trying to spread the word about the need for mental health services. And they’re encouraging family members and loved ones of firefighters to seek help, too. “It’s that vicarious trauma,” said Cal Fire Battalion Chief Nikole Schutz, speaking during last year's Camp Fire. “Seeing things on social media or being exposed to it all the time, knowing they’re gone for a length of time, just those exposures or the...

By Kathleen Wilson, Ventura County Star, November 5, 2019 A Ventura County task force formed to prevent mass shootings has identified changes to be made in safety measures and mental health treatment in the wake of the Borderline attack. Possibilities include the opening of outpatient psychiatric centers by both private and public hospitals and a pilot program to streamline the process for seizing guns from people legally barred from having them. Officials also are looking at an awareness...

By Kerry Klein, Valley Public Radio, November 5, 2019 The non-profit health advocacy group March of Dimes has released its annual preterm birth report card, and once again, San Joaquin Valley counties ranked among the worst in the state. Throughout California, just shy of 9 percent of babies are preterm. That means they’re born before 37 weeks of gestation, which can put them at higher risk of long-term health complications and even death. Although Fresno County’s preterm birth rate improved...

By Sarah Bohn, Caroline Danielson, Tess Thorman, and Vicki Hsieh, Public Policy Institute of California, October 2019 Employment does not eliminate poverty. Struggling workers in California can face many barriers to exiting poverty, including low wages, a high cost of living, and a changing job market. Minimum wage increases may be helping some of the working poor, but exiting poverty is complex. Additional policy responses are critical. Employment hours Policies that promote more...

By EdSource, November 4, 2019 From Sonoma County to Simi Valley, fires forced hundreds of thousands of Californians out of their homes in October. In this week’s podcast, reporter Sydney Johnson shares what she found at evacuation centers in Santa Rosa and Petaluma, where she spoke with college students worried about how they will make up lost time. Also, with a big decline in out-of-school suspensions for disruptive behavior, some districts are looking at ways to transform how they handle...

By Matt Tinoco, KPCC, November 5, 2019 The reality of California’s homeless crisis is that there is little social safety net to catch the very poorest residents before they fall to the streets. As more than 100,000 people find homes on California’s sidewalks, roadways and parks, the costs mount for local and state governments. Nowhere is this more acute than the state’s public health care system. Medi-Cal covers many homeless people’s escalating health needs as they become sicker while...

By Anne Gelhaus, Bay Area News Group, November 4, 2019 Jack Jolly, 25, almost lost his job for being late, had his pay withheld and got evicted, all with in the space of a month—or an hour, depending on your perspective. Jack was the role played by Kyle (participants didn’t give last names) in a Nov. 2 poverty simulation staged by West Valley Community Services and the city of Cupertino, in partnership with Step Up Silicon Valley. Kyle was one of about 30 participants who each adopted the...

By County of San Benito Behavioral Health Department, BenitoLink, November 4, 2019 PATHS program provides an array of services to children and youth that aim to support enhanced social/emotional development, improve social skills, school performance, and provide linkage to mental health and substance use disorder services. The Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) was approved by California voters in 2004 to provide increased funding towards programs within Behavioral Health departments to...

By John Fensterwald, EdSource, November 6, 2019 In its first detailed examination of former Gov. Jerry Brown’s landmark school funding law, the California State Auditor sharply criticized the Legislature and State Board of Education for failing to ensure that billions of dollars have been spent on low-income children and other students targeted for additional state money. “In general, we determined that the State’s approach” to the Local Control Funding Formula “has not ensured that funding...