Tagged With "working poor"
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2018 Humboldt County Community Health Assessment
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...
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$3 billion state program hopes to improve healthcare for the poor in 18 counties, including O.C. (ocregister.com)
Orange County hopes to get homeless residents into housing – and help them stay there. Riverside County plans to connect former inmates with health clinics and social services. Placer County is opening a respite center where homeless patients can go after they leave the hospital. Those are just some of the pilot projects in a $3 billion experimental effort officials hope will improve the health of California’s most vulnerable populations. The effort is a recognition that improving people’s...
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37th Annual Child Abuse Prevention Symposium Recap
"Speak Out! Confronting the Culture of Child Sexual Abuse and Secrecy" was the theme of Santa Clara County's 37th Annual Child Abuse Prevention Symposium which featured a Keynote conversation with Olympic Gold Medal winning gymnast and current UCLA Assistant Gymnastics Coach Jordyn Wieber. Jordyn, and other athletes and survivors of former USA Gymnastics team doctor and serial child sex abuser Larry Nassar, earlier spoke to a U.S. Senate Subcommittee about a “culture of silence” more...
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A 'fire of infections' could sweep California evacuation centers. Here's the plan to stop it [sacbee.com]
By Ryan Sabalow, The Sacramento Bee, April 29, 2020 The town of Paradise and the surrounding communities had burned to the ground. The victims, many of them poor and with nowhere to go, barely escaped. They were exhausted and scared. Then the norovirus hit as they crammed together in churches and a local fairground. They shared restrooms and slept shoulder-to-shoulder on cots. At the East Ave Church in Chico , some 300 Camp Fire evacuees had it better than some others in Butte County. Only...
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A National Agenda to Address Adverse Childhood Experiences
What are ACEs and Why Do They Matter? In 2016 1 , nearly half of U.S. children – 34 million kids – had at least one Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) and more than 20 percent experienced two or more. The new brain sciences and science of human development explain how ACEs can have devastating, long-lasting effects on children’s health and wellbeing. These events resonate well beyond the individual child to have far-reaching consequences for families, neighborhoods, and communities. ACEs...
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A Smarter System: Addressing Social Determinants of Health as a Cost-Saving Measure
by Edward Schor, MD, Senior Vice President at the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health The importance of social factors in determining individuals’ health status and their use of health care services has been receiving increasing attention. A recent report from the Bipartisan Policy Center suggests that opportunities to control health care costs reside primarily in addressing patients’ social and behavioral care needs. The report lays out the arguments for integrating social and...
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A Snapshot of California's Working Poor [ppic.org]
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...
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Bad childhood experiences can make us unhealthy [Sacbee.com]
Vincent Felitti, a Kaiser Permanente physician in San Diego in the 1990s, had a radical idea. Instead of just asking patients about their symptoms, what would happen if doctors asked them about their childhoods? His hypothesis, built on a hunch informed by experience, was that childhood trauma was connected to poor health later in life. Felitti helped lead an exhaustive study of 17,000 patients that seemed to confirm his theory. That was in 1998. But for years Felitti’s study and his...
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Bail reform: Awaiting trial, but can’t afford bond? Silicon Valley moving to free more suspects (mercurynews.com)
While state and federal lawmakers continue to grapple with bail reform, Santa Clara County moved ahead Tuesday with a wide-ranging plan that includes creating a nonprofit fund to post bonds for low-risk defendants who otherwise couldn’t afford it. The fund is believed to be the first in California, cementing the county’s role as a statewide leader in a national reform movement. Bail reform advocates, including local police chiefs and civil rights leaders, argue that bail has become an unfair...
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Bay Area school redesigns its program to help students graduate [EdSource]
Theresa Harrington, July 9, 2019 Wen Jazhun Brown first transferred to De Anza High as a junior, poor grades made him an unlikely candidate to graduate on time. His GPA was low and he had failed biology. That changed after school counselors, college advisers and teachers helped him see he could reach his goal of becoming a police officer by retaking courses and working hard to successfully complete others. He graduated last month and will enroll this fall at Sacramento State University “My...
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ACEs Science Champions Series: Because of Andres Perez, 10,000+ Latinx parents in Northern California embrace trauma-informed parenting
Andres Perez immigrated to San Jose, Calif., from Mexico in 1990. He was 24 years old, undocumented, knew little English, lacked job skills, and had a pregnant wife to support. He hit the ground running by completing an ESL program in San Jose City College, and, while working days at any job he could find, at night he earned an associate of science degree with specialization in electronics and computers in 2002. Fortunately for thousands of Latinx parents and their children, he never worked...
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Behavioral Health Integration in Medi-Cal: A Blueprint for California (California Health Care Foundation)
People with behavioral health conditions — that is, mental illness and/or substance use disorder — often experience poor health overall. They are less likely to receive preventive care, have higher rates of major chronic illnesses, and often experience a lower quality of care for their physical health needs. Those with a diagnosis of serious mental illness or substance use disorder die on average over 20 years earlier than those without such a diagnosis, often from preventable physical...
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Bipartisan trauma resolution passes the House unanimously
In the late afternoon on Feb. 26, the House of Representatives unanimously passed H. Res. 443 , a resolution recognizing the importance and effectiveness of trauma-informed care and calling for a national trauma awareness month and trauma-informed awareness day. The impetus for the resolution resides with the First Lady of Wisconsin, Tonette Walker, who has taken a strong leadership role in advancing trauma-informed policy and practice statewide through Fostering Futures , and has elevated...
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CA ACEs Aware Initiative webinar provides roadmap for ACEs screening
What is the economic toll of ACEs in the State of California? $112.5 billion , said California Surgeon General Dr. Nadine Burke Harris to attendees of a webinar on February 26. That cost, she said, was one clear reason that she and other early adopters of screening for Adverse Childhood Experiences are urging their fellow health care providers in California to join the ACEs Aware Initiative that launched at the beginning of the year. In January, the State of California put screening...
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CA pediatrician develops, tests, gets state OK for whole-child assessment tool that includes ACEs
Over the last dozen years or so, many pediatricians, astounded by the ramifications of the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on the children they care for, began integrating this science into their practices. The most common approach has been to ask parents about ACEs using a questionnaire, and to use this information to counsel parents and identify resources for the family. Different practices have been using different questionnaires: Some ask parents for their ACE scores...
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CA pediatrician develops, tests, gets state OK for whole-child assessment tool that includes ACEs
[Editor's note: This blog was first posted in April 2017. Dr. Marie-Mitchell updated the assessment by modifying a few of the questions, so we are republishing with the new assessment, one in Spanish and one in English.] Over the last dozen years or so, many pediatricians, astounded by the ramifications of the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on the children they care for, began integrating this science into their practices. The most common approach has been to ask parents...
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CA Senate unanimously approves ACEs reduction resolution
On August 18, the California Senate unanimously approved Concurrent Resolution (ACR) No. 155 to encourage statewide policies to reduce children’s exposure to adverse childhood experiences. As reported on ACEs Too High , the resolution is modeled after a Wisconsin resolution that encourages state policy decision-making to consider the impact of early childhood adversity on the long-term health and well being of its citizens. Since the resolution does not require...
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ACEs screening in CA — a Q and A with Dr. Dayna Long
Last year, the California Department of Health Care Services rolled out its plans for universal screening for trauma among its pediatric and adult Medicaid population. Beginning January 1, 2020, California physicians were able to receive an incentive payment of $29 for each pediatric patient screened for ACEs using the PEARLs ( Pediatrics Adverse Childhood and Resilience Study) tool. Dr. Dayna Long talked with ACEs Connection staff reporter Laurie Udesky about ACEs science, what led to the...
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Adversity and resiliency: The case for integrating ACEs and Strengthening Families approaches
Attached is the PowerPoint that was presented by Diane Kellegrew, Jane Stevens and Katie Albright in a webinar April 16. And below is the slide that ID's the presenters.
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Alternative IHEBA with ACEs for California (and Other) Pediatricians
If you are a pediatrician serving Medicaid managed care patients in California, then you are required to use the Staying Healthy Assessment or an alternative IHEBA (Individual Health Education Behavioral Assessment) at all well-child visits. The bad news is that getting approval to use an alternative IHEBA is a tedious process. The good news is that as of October 27, 2016 the Whole Child Assessment (WCA) is available for use in English and Spanish. Most importantly, the WCA has been...
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As California Moves to Screen Children for Childhood Trauma, Poverty Has To Be Part of the Equation
In California, we are coming full circle in recognizing the connection between poverty and health.
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California Bets on Big Data to Predict Child Abuse [The Chronicle of Social Change]
California, home to the largest foster care population in the country, has publicly declared its intention to pursue the use of so-called “predictive analytics” to foresee and presumably prevent child abuse. California Department of Social Services (CDSS) Deputy Director Greg Rose, who oversees the state’s foster care system, says that the state’s new predictive risk modeling project is designed to give social workers better information about past child welfare cases when they first field a...
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California Department of Public Health has MCAH program that prevents ACEs!
In Federal-State partnership HRSA Maternal & Child Health the California Department of Public Health, MCAH have a home visiting program designed for families at risk for ACEs! The California Home Visiting Program (CHVP) is designed f or families who are at risk for adverse childhood experiences , including child maltreatment, domestic violence, substance abuse and mental illness. Home visiting is a preventive intervention that aims to promote maternal health, improve child development,...
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California Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative’s “Enhancing the Collective Vision” Slides Are Available and Opportunity to Participate in an Orientation Webinar
The California Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative convened more than 65 stakeholders on Friday, July 12, 2019 to assess the current state of collective action around adverse childhood experiences (ACEs); align EfC Initiative goals and project interventions with existing efforts; identify mutually reinforcing activities; and establish a collective agreement on how to strategically promote Safe, Stable, Nurturing Relationships, and Environments (SSNR&E), to prevent and reduce child...
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Updated Community Health Assessment now available [Humboldtgov.org]
The Community Health Assessment (CHA), a comprehensive overview of the health of the Humboldt County community, was presented at the Board of Supervisors meeting this afternoon. The Humboldt County Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) Public Health report looks at traditional public health measures of illness, mortality, nutrition and physical activity in the community. The CHA also includes data about income, housing status, community safety and access to care, as underlying...
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Using Meditation to Help Close the Achievement Gap [Well.Blogs.NYTimes.com]
Closing the so-called achievement gap between poor inner-city children and their more affluent suburban counterparts is among the biggest challenges for education reformers. The success of some schools’ efforts suggests that meditation might significantly improve children’s school performance – and help close that gap. In 2007, James Dierke, then the principal of the Visitacion Valley Middle School in a troubled neighborhood in San Francisco, was determined to improve both the quality of...
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Vital Signs: Estimated Proportion of Adult Health Problems Attributable to Adverse Childhood Experiences and Implications for Prevention [cdc.gov]
By Melissa T. Merrick, Derek C. Ford, Katie A. Ports, et al., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, November 5, 2019 Summary What is already known about this topic? Adverse childhood experiences are common and are associated with many poor health and life outcomes in adulthood. What is added by this report? Nearly 16% of adults in the study population reported four or more types of adverse childhood experiences, which were significantly associated with poorer health outcomes, health...
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Walk With Us: Building Community Power and Connection for Health Equity [rwjf.org]
By Aditi Vaidya, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, August 20, 2019 While many think of the Bay Area of California as the center of big tech and wealth, my memories of Oakland take me back to its Port truck drivers. Working an average of 11 hours a day, waiting in long lines at the Port of Oakland to pick up their loads, truck drivers in the Bay Area were isolated—living in the rigs they decorated with photos of their children and families. You can guess all of the reasons this is...
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Webinar readies doctors for universal ACEs screening in Ca and beyond
Editor’s note: Governor Gavin Newsom set aside federal funds and funds through Proposition 56 that will reimburse health care providers for screening patients in the Medi-Cal program for trauma beginning July 1 using the CPT code 96160. Notably the Department of Health Care Services recommended in March that only California providers using the PEARLS tool to screen pediatric patients will be reimbursed. ACEs Connection has made repeated public records requests for public comments submitted...
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What does a public health approach to preventing and healing trauma look like? This statewide initiative may have an answer.
Learn more about All Children Can Thrive (ACT/CA), trauma informed effort funded through the CA state legislature.
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What the Camp Fire Revealed [theatlantic.com]
Natural disasters are equalizing forces. Fires torch the homes of the rich and the poor alike. Hurricanes destroy cruise ships as well as decade-old cars. Earthquakes level cities, affecting everyone within. But natural disasters are also polarizing forces. Income and wealth shape who gets hit; how much individuals, insurers, nonprofits, and governments are willing and able to help; and who recovers, as well as to what extent. That dynamic is now evident in Paradise, California, after the...
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ACEs Science Champions Series: Why this financial coach integrates ACEs-based training
In foreground, Dr. Donielle Prince (l) and Saundra Davis (r) ____________________________ Saundra Davis, a financial coach and consultant who trains other coaches on building resilience among the working poor, knew she had met her partner in helping people deal with their “money disorders” when she first met Dr. Donielle Prince in Sacramento at a black women’s gathering in 2015. Dr. Prince works with ACEs Connection as its San Francisco Bay Area regional community facilitator. She also...
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Shasta County Public Health looks to measure wellness by looking back at childhood experiences [Redding.com]
The Shasta County Department of Public Health is looking at a new way to address healthiness, and it starts by looking back at childhood experiences. Adverse Childhood Experiences, also known as ACEs, are childhood experiences that are unhappy, unhealthy and hurtful before age 18. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, looking at ACEs suggests that these "experiences are major risk factors for the leading causes of illness and death as well as poor quality of life in...
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So Much for The Great California Bail Celebration [themarshallproject.org]
To great fanfare, California Gov. Jerry Brown this week signed into law the nation’s most radical overhaul of bail, essentially abolishing cash bail and putting bondsmen out of business. In a statement, Brown declared the new law would assure that “that rich and poor alike are treated fairly” when accused of crimes. But even before the governor signed it, the new law was under sharp attack from some surprising voices — criminal justice advocacy organizations that have long sought to overturn...
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Solano County launches its ACEs and resilience initiative inviting all to take action
Elizabeth Huntley recalls the day when her family’s life was turned upside down. “One day my mom woke up and she packed up all of our clothes, all five of us…and she took me and my younger sister who had the same father… down to my paternal grandmother’s house…and she left us there. She took my middle sister to a town near Birmingham, Ala., and left her there. She took my only brother and an older sister back to Huntsville and left them at a sister’s house. Then she went back to that housing...
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Solano County's (CA) ACEs initiative, a robust community effort, makes room for input from all
In a house called “Johanna’s House” on a tree-lined side street in Vallejo, Calif., four women are filling out the adverse childhood experiences (ACE) survey given to them by Maria Guevara, the founder of Vallejo Together, an organization that serves homeless residents in Vallejo. The house was named for Johanna Dilag, a homeless woman who was found dead along with her dog.
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Starting Now: A Policy Vision for Supporting the Healthy Growth and Development of Every California Baby [ChildrenNow.org]
In the first three years of a child’s life, foundational brain architecture is established, making children’s earliest experiences the most important. The creation of healthy brain architecture is dependent on good health, positive and nurturing relationships with adults, exposure to enriching learning opportunities and safe neighborhoods. Yet too often in California, children—especially children of color, foster youth, and those growing up in poverty—lack the components critical for a...
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State Dropping Ball in Dealing With Childhood Trauma, New Report Says [CaliforniaHealthline.org]
The lowest of 31 grades issued in the 2016 California Children's Report Card released on Wednesday was for dealing with the effects of childhood trauma. In Children Now's biennial assessment of the status of California kids, researchers gave the state a "D-" for how it deals with childhood trauma. The report contends that children who experience traumatic problems such as abuse, neglect and witnessing violence at home can suffer serious long-term consequences, including health...
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STATE HEALTH CARE STRATEGIES TO ADDRESS CHILDREN’S TRAUMA, EXPOSURE TO VIOLENCE AND ACEs
I found this document by Futures Without Violence to be a useful resource. From the forward: The health care system plays an important role both in identifying children who may be exposed to extreme adversity and violence, currently and in the past, and in providing the evidence-based interventions that can help children heal from trauma and prevent health conditions and other poor outcomes associated with trauma and ACEs. The health care system is also central in supporting the greatest...
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Stress is hurting kids’ health. California’s new surgeon general has a plan to help [qz.com]
The US medical system isn’t particularly good at preventing illness . Once someone is sick, doctors hopefully know how to treat them. But historically, there’s been far less focus on preventing people from needing treatment in the first place. That’s finally starting to change, thanks to a growing movement in the health-care community that looks to address the environmental and behavioral causes of many common diseases. Prevention, experts say, will save money (though it’s unclear how much )...
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Rich, poor: California’s split personality (capitolweekly.net)
Two recent studies have confirmed it: In California, poverty exists in the most unlikely places. First, a Gallup-Healthways State of American Well-Being study lists five California regional areas as among the best places to be in the country. In the top 20 among the 189 places ranked, Santa Cruz-Watsonville is in third place nationally, San Luis Obispo — Paso Robles was seventh, Santa Barbara – Santa Maria was 12th, Santa Rosa was 17th and Salinas was 19th. The rankings are based on criteria...
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Rising from the Ashes: How Trauma-Informed Care Nurtures Healing in Rural America [The Rural Monitor]
By Jenn Lukens April 17, 2019 It was late July 2018 when the Mendocino Complex wildfire broke out in rural Lake County, California. It burned more than 450,000 acres and destroyed 280 structures before it was contained. Ana Santana managed to fill some storage bins with sentimental items – her kids’ blankets, pictures, and art projects – before fleeing her home. Santana is the facilitator of the Lake County Children’s Council and Program Director for Healthy Start Youth and Family Services ,...
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RYSE Center's Listening Campaign: Young people in Richmond, CA help adults understand trauma, violence, coping, and healing
"My experience with violence is very brutal...I grew up with violence as if it were my sibling." - LC participant (youth) "We know we can't run the city- it's too complex- but our experience and our voices should count, especially because we're the most effected ." - LC participant (youth) "Our city's problems are shared by us all; we are all part of the problem AND the solution. Listening is a key component to healing." - LC Share Out partici pant (adult) Three years ago, RYSE Center in...
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San Diego County numbers show lifespan gap between rich and poor (inewsource.org)
The wealthiest men in San Diego County can expect to live almost a decade longer than their poorest counterparts. That’s one of the findings from the Health Inequality Project , a report written by researchers from Stanford, Harvard and MIT. In 2014, the most recent year available, a 40-year-old San Diego County man in the top quarter of income earners could expect to live to almost 90. A man of the same age in the bottom quarter of income would only expect to live to 80. Steven Eldred with...
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San Jose: Doctors who treat homeless deliver care to the streets [MercuryNews.com]
SAN JOSE -- Being named host city for this week's International Street Medicine Symposium might bring to mind Abraham Lincoln's story about a man who is tarred, feathered and ridden out of town on a rail. Asked how he liked it, the man replies,...
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San Jose: Ray Bramson, chief of homeless team, inspired by his own experience [MercuryNews.com]
SAN JOSE -- Talking to a man who could lose his apartment and wind up homeless in a city of soaring rents where the median home price has hit $1 million, Ray Bramson understands the frustration and despair. He's been there. At six years old, Bramson lived inside a tent in Hawaii for several weeks after his father's job as a photographer ended. He remembers a childhood that at times was like "an extended camping trip." "We went from having a house to moving around and camping and having all...
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Saving Lives And Saving Money [CaliforniaHealthLine.org]
Don Meade doesn’t like hospitals, but he uses them. In just one year, he made 62 trips to the emergency room. He rattles off the names of local hospitals in Orange and Los Angeles counties like they’re a handful of pills. “St. Joseph’s in Orange, [Saddleback Memorial in] Laguna Hills,” he says. “The best one for me around here is PIH in Whittier.” At 52, Meade has chronic heart disease and other serious ailments, and he is recovering from a longtime addiction to crack cocaine. Today, he...
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School health centers are big boost for Fresno [Fresno Bee]
A seismic event that will pay dividends for children, their families and the future of Fresno took place last week. What was it? The Fresno Unified School District Board of Trustees’ decision Feb. 8 to open six new school-based health centers over the next two school years. We believe that the partnership forged by Fresno Unified, Clinica Sierra Vista and Valley Children’s Healthcare should inspire other community leaders and organizations to find new ways to team up for the good of...
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Symptoms of Depression During and After Pregnancy
In order to have the best chance of improving outcomes for the mother and infant, routine screening and treatment for depression should begin early in pregnancy, a time when women have increased contact with the health care system.
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The Building Blocks of HOPE – Block #2: Environment
We have been so encouraged to hear how HOPE (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences) is a natural fit for ACES Connection. Children who grow up in safe, stable and equitable environments are less likely to experience poor mental and physical health as adults. It is crucial to ask caregivers about the types of environments their children are experiencing. Celebrate the positive and work with families to help ensure their child has the opportunity to live, learn and play in safe and...