June 2020

"I think that all of us, regardless of our racial or ethnic background, feel relieved that we no longer have to deal with the racism and the sexism associated with the system of slavery. But we treat the history of enslavement like we treat the genocidal colonization of indigenous people in North America, as if it was not that important, or worse, as if it never happened." —Angela Davis, "The Meaning of Freedom" Please join us for the ongoing community discussion of A Better Normal, our...

Medi-Cal Payment for Telehealth and Virtual/Telephonic Communications Relative to the 2019-Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) June 23, 2020 (Supersedes April 30, 2020 and March 24, 2020 Guidance) Overview: In light of both the federal Health and Human Services Secretary’s January 31, 2020, public health emergency declaration, as well as the President’s March 13, 2020, national emergency declaration relative to COVID-19, the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) is issuing additional guidance...

By Rachel R. Hardeman, Eduardo M. Medina, and Rhea W. Boyd, New England Journal of Medicine, June 10, 2020 In Minnesota, where black Americans account for 6% of the population but 14% of Covid-19 cases and 33% of Covid-19 deaths, George Floyd died at the hands of police. “Please — I can’t breathe.” He was a black man detained on suspicion of forgery, an alleged offense that was never litigated or even charged, but for which he received an extrajudicial death sentence. “Please — I can’t...

Kidsdata.org , a program of the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health , promotes the health and well being of children in California by providing an easy to use resource that offers high-quality, wide-ranging, local data to those who work on behalf of children. Kidsdata.org allows users to easily find, customize, and use data on more than 600 measures of child health and well being. Data are available across California counties, cities, school districts, and legislative districts...

By Iridian Casarez, March 17, 2020, USC Center for Health Journalism Fellowships Post. When people are put in a a stressful, traumatic situation, their bodies begin to release hormones and activate their fight-or-flight response. The hormones released during this process are healthy — in moderate amounts. It's a natural response our bodies undergo, but when the response is constantly triggered by a stressful environment it becomes hazardous, especially for children. Too much cortisol and...

By Emily DeRuy, June 26, 2020, Kaiser News. Kaiser Permanente said Friday it plans to put $100 million toward addressing the systemic racism and lack of economic opportunity that have hurt the health of Blacks and other people of color in the U.S. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has hit Black and, in California, Latino people especially hard and there is growing acknowledgement among health care experts that racism is at the root of the disparity. Black people, for instance, are more likely...

My organization is hiring a Marketing and Communications Coordinator which will support the Office of the Surgeon General's ACEs Initiative. See the job description below.

By Kara Manke, June 24, 2020, UC Berkeley Public Health. This article originally appeared on the Berkeley News website . The COVID-19 pandemic has cost California’s public and private insurers an estimated $2.4 billion dollars in testing and treatment — about six times the annual cost to treat seasonal influenza in the state, according to a new study by researchers at the Nicholas C. Petris Center at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health. In the absence of a...

CRACKED UP THE EVOLVING CONVERSATION Episode 4: Generational Trauma - Breaking the Cycle with Darrell Hammond, Comedian, actor, SNL Legend Michelle Esrick, Filmmaker, activist Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Author of The Body Keeps the Score Jane Stevens, Founder of ACES Connection and special guest Jane Fonda Academy Award-winning actor, producer, author and activist Thursday June 25th at 1pm PDT / 2p MT / 3p CT / 4pm EDT Hosted by ACEs Connection THE PRICE OF THIS LIVE EVENT IS $12.50 We have...

By Cathie Anderson, The Sacramento Bee, June 24, 2020 Covered California announced Tuesday that it would extend a special enrollment period to July 31 to give Californians additional time to sign up for health insurance. It had been set to end June 30. As cases of COVID-19 surged in California, the agency’s board voted to give all uninsured Californians the opportunity to sign up for coverage. Typically, after open enrollment ends in January, only people who have a qualifying life event such...

Sacramento County Public Health and the Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE) today announced the launch of their groundbreaking partnership that over the next several years will place mental health clinicians in every school in the county and help make schools “centers of wellness” in their communities.

Lishaun Francis of Children Now! shares research on multi-layered emotional distress children are currently facing, and offers policy recommendations for meeting these needs.