Policy & Advocacy

By Amanda Merck, Salud America!, February 12, 2020 Early childhood adversity like abuse and divorce is a root cause of many of the greatest public health challenges we face today. But doctors don’t even screen children for exposure to adversity. That’s changing in California, thanks to Dr. Nadine Burke Harris and other child advocates. As of Jan. 1, 2020, almost 100,000 physicians in 8,800 clinics will be reimbursed for routinely screening Medi-Cal patients for adverse childhood experiences...

Young Adult Expansion see below for hyperlinks to more information. Beginning January 1, 2020, a new law in California will give full scope Medi-Cal to young adults under the age of 26 and immigration status does not matter . All other Medi-Cal eligibility rules, including income limits, will still apply. This initiative, called the Young Adult Expansion, is modeled after Senate Bill 75, which provided full scope Medi-Cal to all eligible children under the age 19 regardless of immigration...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Norman Williams NUMBER: 19-03 (916) 440-7660 DATE: December 30, 2019 www.dhcs.ca.gov DHCS EXPANDS MEDI-CAL YOUNG-ADULT ELIGIBILITY, RESTORES BENEFITS, ADDS CHILDHOOD-TRAUMA SCREENING IN 2020 SACRAMENTO – Medi-Cal, California’s health care program for low-income individuals and families, will extend full coverage to tens of thousands of additional young adults statewide effective January 1, 2020, another step toward building a California for All. The young adult...

The federal Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 included a major advance for the child abuse prevention field: the Family First Prevention Services Act. This legislation seeks to change the way Title IV-E funds can be spent by states, including California. These funds will go to programs that support at-risk families and would allow children to stay with their parents or relatives, instead of going into the foster care system. Sheila Boxley, the President and CEO of the Child Abuse Prevention...

A toolkit for policy and advocacy on ACEs awareness, trauma informed practice, and resilience building

Deadline extended to submit abstracts for the 2019 PHA Conference, "Rooted in Community: Moving from Trauma to Healing"

By Bay City News Service Aug 13, 2019 This past May, residents of the 64-unit Strawberry Hill complex in Vallejo came home to find a troubling notice on their doors. Beginning in June, their rent was going to nearly double. The new owners of the apartment complex, San Francisco-based The Reliant Group , had plans to renovate the building. Tenants, panicked over losing their homes, and the Vallejo Housing Justice Coalition went to Mayor Bob Sampayan and the City Council, which passed an...

Your voice is more powerful than you might imagine. Speak with your local Board of Supervisor member (in 1:1 mtg, during public comments at meetings, etc). Your unique perspective, when shared with your representative(s) has the potential to positively influence public policy. Please consider reaching out and sharing your knowledge with local key leaders. (*Local Board of Supervisors can be found on their county website. Click HERE for find your state level representative). This article...