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At a time when a third of the state’s population relies on government-funded health care, most California counties are failing to apply for millions of dollars that could be used to broaden access to mental health care, an analysis by the California Health Report has found. Data from California’s Department of Health Care Services shows that only a handful of counties apply for Mental Health Medi-Cal Administrative Activities reimbursement, and those that do often obtain a low amount...

By Xenia Shih Bion, California Health Care Foundation, October 7, 2019 California should move swiftly to improve the quality of care in the managed care plans that serve 80% of Medi-Cal’s nearly 14 million enrollees, according to researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Led by Professor of Medicine Andrew Bindman, MD, with support from CHCF, the researchers examined 41 quality measures and found that more than half of the quality measures stayed the same or declined...

By Yesenia Amaro and Deepa Bharath, Center for Health Journalism News Collaborative, October 4, 2019 For almost two years, Sylvia Valenzuela relied on the federal Indian Health Service system to get the primary care she needed. But when she had to see an OB-GYN for her prenatal care, she was on her own. What followed, she said, was a nightmare in which she struggled to obtain and keep Medi-Cal coverage, leaving her uninsured for a critical stretch of her pregnancy. Valenzuela says she would...

By Jeremy Loudenback, The Chronicle of Social Change, October 4, 2019 On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a civilian oversight body for the the county’s Probation Department that can make unannounced visits and legally compel documents and witnesses. In recent years, the county’s Probation Department has been under fire for conditions at juvenile detention facilities overseen by the department. The department has struggled with reports of excessive use of force...

The California Democratic Committee pass resolution to ban spanking this August, 2019! Ending Physical/Corporal Punishment of Children RESOLUTION NUMBER 19-05.112 WHEREAS there is overwhelming evidence that spanking is harmful to children and families as it increases aggression and violence long term, impacts normal brain development, and is ineffective in teaching responsibility and self-control, and the rationale for spanking is the same that was accepted for men hitting women in recent...

If a health outcome is seen to a greater or lesser extent between groups of people, there is a disparity. Each year in Humboldt County hundreds of individuals die unnecessarily from preventable diseases and conditions. Tackling this issue requires a broad public health perspective, addressing all of the determinants of health: access to care, racism (and other “isms”), personal behavior, social and physical environments, policies and education. Humboldt County as a whole suffers a health...

By Zaidee Stavely, EdSource, October 3, 2019 It only takes one healthy relationship with a caring adult to help a child heal from trauma. That’s one of the main messages in a series of classes given to child care providers across California that help them work with children who have experienced abuse, violence, family separation or other trauma. The classes are part of a state program called the Emergency Child Care Bridge Program for Foster Children, which California began in 2018 to help...

By California Department of Public Health, Maternal, Child & Adolescent Health, October 2, 2019 The California Department of Public Health (CDPH), Center for Family Health is pleased to announce that the 2018 in-hospital breastfeeding data have been posted to the CDPH In-Hospital Breastfeeding Initiation Data website . We encourage all hospitals to utilize these data to integrate Quality Improvement (QI) efforts within the perinatal unit to ensure policies and practices are supportive of...

By Gina DePinto, Noozhawk, October 1, 2019 The Santa Barbara County Executive Office has announced the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office and the Department of Behavioral Wellness have been awarded $2,145,000 over three years ($715,000/year) to staff and support two law enforcement-mental health co-response teams for the county. One or more co-response teams will serve North County. Staffing includes two crisis intervention-trained Sheriff deputies and two clinician positions from...

By Charles T. Clark, The San Diego Union-Tribune, October 1, 2019 The San Diego region’s older population is growing rapidly, and the county has a plan it hopes will bolster services for seniors. County supervisors adopted a comprehensive regional plan, dubbed the “Aging Roadmap,” intended to meet the needs of older adults in the region and keep seniors in their homes as long as possible. The plan, created by staff in the Health and Human Services Agency’s Aging and Independence Services,...

By Ashley Ruano, Fix School Discipline, October 1, 2019 The #StudentNotSuspects coalition has long worked in Los Angeles to end the random searches policy that discriminate against students and create a hostile campus environment for students to learn. For many years, Los Angeles Unified School District implemented mandatory random metal detector searches in middle and high schools. The searches did not make campus environments more secure. Instead, the policy targeted, and criminalized...

By KQED, October 1, 2019 Researchers have recently discovered a dangerous biological syndrome caused by abuse and neglect during childhood. As the new documentary Resilience reveals, toxic stress can trigger hormones that wreak havoc on the brains and bodies of children, putting them at a greater risk for disease, homelessness, prison time, and early death. While the broader impacts of poverty worsen the risk, no segment of society is immune. Resilience, however, also chronicles the dawn of...