Tagged With "California"
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Telehealth Is Grabbing the Pandemic Spotlight. Can California Do More to Help It Grow [chcf.org]
By Rob Waters, California Health Care Foundation, April 16, 2020 In a decade at the Sacramento-based Center for Connected Health Policy , Mei Wa Kwong has had to answer a basic question more times than she can count: “What, exactly, is telehealth?” And until recently, she doesn’t recall the word being used so frequently by a president of the United States. Telehealth, previously known as telemedicine, generally refers to the use of interactive video and audio to diagnose, treat, or...
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Tell California's Leaders to Make Critical Mental Health Services Available for Kids in Foster Care
Kids in foster care have experienced significant trauma from abuse and neglect and, as a result, often need mental health services. Yet too often, kids in foster care and their caregivers are left to navigate triggering events and conflicts on their own, even though immediate professional support is critical in times of crisis. Tell our state’s leaders to support a common sense solution – a toll-free hotline, available 24/7, so caregivers and kids in foster care, who are experiencing...
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Tell State Leaders: Do More for California's Babies
Check out this exciting opportunity to support babies and strengthen families! Please join hundreds of other organizations in signing on to this letter urging our state leaders to fund critical home visiting supports for babies and families living in poverty. Children’s earliest brain development is the foundation for their lifelong health and success. Yet too often families, especially those who are struggling to make ends meet, don’t have the support they need during the stressful time of...
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Testing In California Still a Frustrating Patchwork Of Haves And Have-Nots [califroniahealthline.org]
By Anna Maria Barry-Jester, Angela Hart, and Rachel Bluth, California Healthline, May 4, 2020 Months into the spread of the coronavirus in the United States, widespread diagnostic testing still isn’t available, and California offers a sobering view of the dysfunction blocking the way. It’s hard to overstate how uneven the access to critical test kits remains in the nation’s largest state. Even as some Southern California counties are opening drive-thru sites to make testing available to any...
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The Economics of Child Abuse: A Study of California
While the impact of maltreatment on a child and their family is devastating, child maltreatment also has serious effects far beyond those for the victim. Maltreatment results in ongoing costs to taxpayers, institutions, businesses, and society at large. Local communities bear the brunt of these costs in the form of medical, educational, and judicial costs, though more tragic signs are seen in homelessness, addiction, and teen pregnancy. To create a concrete understanding of the widespread...
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Their Kids Died on the Psych Ward. They Were Far From Alone, a Times Investigation Found [latimes.com]
By Soumya Karlamangla, Los Angeles Times, December 1, 2019 Mia St. John’s cellphone lit up with a message from the psychiatrist treating her son. The voicemail shimmered with hope, the first she had felt in months. The doctor said Julian, admitted to a psychiatric facility with schizophrenia, seemed more cheerful, was talking more with other patients and would soon begin a new art project. “Very happy to see he’s coming around a bit,” the doctor said. It was November 2014, and Julian, 24,...
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These Laws Could Make Life a Little Easier for Low-Income Californians [calmatters.org]
By Jackie Botts, Cal Matters, October 10, 2019 Lawmakers have passed a suite of bills that aim to ease financial burdens for Californians living paycheck to paycheck. While several new California laws have sparked national attention — such as the law that will convert gig economy workers into full employees and another to cap large rent increases — state legislators quietly approved dozens of other bills that address challenges faced by California’s poor. Among this year’s batch of...
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'This is a cry for help': ICE detainees beg California lawmakers to intervene after coronavirus death [sfchronicle.com]
By Tatiana Sanchez, San Francisco Chronicle, May 13, 2020 More than 40 immigrants being held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center near San Diego are alleging that a detainee’s recent death due to COVID-19 was caused by reckless and inhumane conditions, according to a letter begging the governor and other California lawmakers to intervene. “This is a cry for help,” said detainee Oscar Nevarez, one of 43 immigrants at Otay Mesa who supported the letter after detainee Carlos Escobar Mejia died on...
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Three Bright Spots in California’s Fitful and Failing Implementation of a Federal Law Aimed at Lifting Foster Students’ Academic Horizons [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
By Susan Abram, The Chronicle of Social Change, November 14, 2019 In the eastern suburbs of Sacramento County, Kamika Hebbert keeps a watchful eye for signs of how an unstable environment affects young minds. There’s the restlessness that comes with worry about biological parents and siblings. The thousand-mile stare that comes with trauma. The mouthing off and anger that comes with fear of being placed with another family or moved to another group home. “I’ve had kids who have moved to 17...
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To Bring a Boy's Murders to Justice, a Prosecutor Wrestled with His Own Childhood Abuse [latimes.com]
By Marisa Gerber, Los Angeles Times, December 11, 2019 Jon Hatami’s voice shook and he stared down at the courthouse floor as reporters packed around him. Minutes before, the prosecutor had won a conviction in the killing of Gabriel Fernandez, one of the most infamous and chilling child abuse cases in California history. When paramedics arrived at Gabriel’s Palmdale home in the spring of 2013, the 8-year-old had shattered ribs, a cracked skull and cigarette burns dotting his unconscious...
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To Help Children Get Mental Health Care, Researchers Call for Overhaul of Medi-Cal [calhealthreport.org]
By Claudia Boyd-Barrett, California Health Report, October 10, 2019 Should health plans do more to support parents in raising stable families? That’s the recommendation from a coalition of child health researchers who are calling for an overhaul of part of the state’s Medi-Cal program. Medi-Cal is California’s low-income health program that covers 40 percent of children in the state. The recommendations are included in a report, from the First 5 Center for Children’s Policy and a group of...
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Trauma-informed Care: It Takes More Than a Clipboard and a Questionnaire
California is about to launch an ambitious campaign to train tens of thousands of Medi-Cal providers to screen children and adults up to age 65 for trauma, starting on January 1, 2020. It is well-established that the early identification of trauma and providing the appropriate treatment are critical tools for reducing long-term health care costs for both children and adults. Research has shown that individuals who experienced a high number of traumatic childhood events are likely to die...
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Twenty Years in the Making: CHCF's Funding of Health Care Journalism [chcf.org]
By Steven Birenbaum and Sally Mudd, California Health Care Foundation, February 21, 2020 For-profit journalism has undergone seismic changes to its business model during the last 15 years. The steady stream of advertising revenue that made the industry profitable for so long is now gone. As a direct result, the infrastructure of local and beat journalism has suffered dramatic losses of capacity and quality. This is one of the prime reasons it is essential for philanthropies, for the...
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Two Community Colleges Show How Students Can Succeed Without Remedial Math Courses [edsource.org]
By Ashley A. Smith, EdSource, November 15, 2019 A San Diego area community college that moved early to eliminate remedial math courses is drawing lots of attention across the state for success in teaching math. Not only are students at Cuyamaca Community College taking math classes that can transfer to four-year colleges, but Latino students are bucking a national trend by outperforming their white counterparts. Cuyamaca, along with College of the Siskiyous in Northern California, were two...
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UC Plans to Enroll 1,400 More California Undergraduates With No Tuition Increase [latimes.com]
By Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times, November 15, 2019 The University of California plans to enroll 1,400 more California undergraduates next year with no tuition increase under a 2020-21 budget approved Thursday by the board of regents. The UC system also will enroll 1,000 additional graduate students and expand mental health services and academic support in its drive to increase graduation rates and close the achievement gap among diverse student groups. The UC Student Assn. successfully...
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Update on bills re: childhood adversity in California Legislature
Below is an updated table of bills that address childhood adversity in the Legislature in 2019. The list is not exhaustive, so please email Kelly Hardy with Children Now if you think a bill is missing and/or if you have any questions. Email: khardy @childrennow.org . Here are key dates for the remainder of the legislative session: July 10 = last day for bills to pass out of policy committees July 12 – August 12 = Summer recess August 30 = last day for fiscal bills to pass out of committee...
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DEADLINE IS TODAY!! Free Technical for Round 5 of the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) Program
By California Strategic Growth Council, October 31, 2019 Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) Program (Round 5) $550 million is available for affordable housing projects to applicants statewide for the current funding Round 5. The program is highly competitive, so make sure to apply for free technical assistance by filling out this survey application (linked), which is due TODAY . [ Apply by filling out this survey .]
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Despite Some Improvements, Higher-Than-Average Preterm Birth Rates Persist in Valley [kvpr.org]
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...
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Directory of Regional Coalitions or Advisory Bodies
The California Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative is collecting information to assist in connecting organizations and community members to local and/or regional coalitions or advisory bodies working on efforts that improve the lives of children and families in California. The purpose of this effort is to assist with creating a directory that will be publicly available to increase engagement in policy, systems, and environmental change efforts that prevent and reduce child...
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Disaster Days: How Megafires, Guns and Other 21st Century Crises are Disrupting CA Schools [capradio.org]
By Ricardo Cano, CalMatters, September 17, 2019 Each year, millions of Californians send their children to public K-12 classrooms, assuming that, from around Labor Day to early summer, there will be one given: A school day on a district’s calendar will mean a day of instruction in school. But that fixed point is changing, according to a CalMatters analysis of public school closures. From massive wildfires to mass shooting threats to dilapidated classrooms, the 21st century is disrupting...
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Disconnected: Internet Stops Once School Ends for Many Rural California Students [edsource.org]
By Sydney Johnson, EdSource, December 6, 2019 Walk into any classroom in Alpaugh Unified and you will see teaching and learning using the latest technology. Students collaborate on digital documents, give presentations on interactive whiteboards, conduct research and even apply to colleges on Chromebooks. But for many students in Alpaugh, a small rural town about an hour north of Bakersfield in Tulare County, that online connection stops once the school day ends. “We have a disadvantage...
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“Disgraceful” Disparities In School Discipline Funnel Kids Into Justice System [witnessla.com]
By Taylor Walker, Witness LA, November 11, 2019 Research and the national conversation around racial disparities in school discipline have largely remained focused on the outsized disparate treatment that black students receive when compared with their white peers. Yet Native American youth face much the same disciplinary treatment in schools that black students do, according to a report from San Diego State University and Sacramento Native American Higher Education Collaborative (SNAHEC)...
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Drug Abuse, Trafficking and Addiction in California’s Central Valley
California’s Central Valley stretches from Bakersfield in the south to Redding in the north. The Valley encompasses a great deal of the state’s interior, and includes major cities including Sacramento, Stockton, Modesto, Visalia and Bakersfield. Though it is not as densely populated as the major cities of California, the valley’s substance abuse and addiction rates are well above those in the metropolitan areas. Drugs are Abundant in California’s Central Valley Though much of Central Valley...
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Early-Bird Rate Ends in Just 3 Weeks for Important Conference on Preparing People for Climate Change in California [The Resource Innovation Group]
To see the conference agenda, list of all-star speakers, and to register go to: http://www.theresourceinnovationgroup.org/california-2018-conference/
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Editorial: Inmates Risking Their Lives to Fight California's Wildfires Deserve a Chance at Full-Time Jobs [latimes.com]
By The Times Editorial Board, Los Angeles Times, November 1, 2019 As California continues to burn, the state’s firefighters have spent day after day in the searing heat and ferocious wind, hiking toward the flames, cutting fire lines and protecting homes. It’s grueling, heroic work that saves lives and prevents more devastation. And sometimes, it’s done by prison inmates. Among the thousands of federal, state and local firefighters on the fire lines, there are also more than 2,500 prisoners...
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Emergency Child Care for Foster Families [saccounty.net]
By Sacramento County, SacCounty News, January 9, 2020 To recruit more loving families for children in foster care, Sacramento County is making it easier to find and afford childcare services for resource families. The Emergency Child Care Bridge Program’s goal is to increase the number of resource families for children in foster care by helping families find the right child care provider, connecting families to long-term child care subsidies, and by providing vouchers to pay for childcare...
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Emergency COVID-19 Victim Services Response - Award Application Process [cpedv.org]
By California Partnership to End Domestic Violence, May 2020 The Office of Emergency Services (OES) has announced $5.3 million dollars in emergency response funds intended to support the needs associated with providing safety and services for victims of interpersonal violence – domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, and child abuse during this time of social distancing. To facilitate the distribution of these funds, OES has contracted with the California Partnership to End...
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Farmworkers Face Daunting Health Risks In California's Wildfires [californiahealthline.org]
By Anna Maria Barry-Jester, California Healthline, October 28, 2019 Farm laborers in yellow safety vests walked through neatly arranged rows of grapes Friday, harvesting the last of the deep purple bundles that hung from the vines, even as the sky behind them was dark with soot. Over the hill just behind them, firetrucks and first responders raced back and forth from a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection staging area, working to contain a wildfire raging through the rugged...
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Finding the Right Words About COVID-19 [chcf.org]
By Kate Meyers, California Health Care Foundation, March 26, 2020 Health care organizations in California and around the US are working incredibly hard to prepare for or respond to a surge of patients suffering from symptoms related to COVID-19. Appropriately, preparation has focused on trying to ensure adequate numbers of health care professionals and sufficient supplies and equipment in the right places at the right times as the demand grows. That focus on numbers and logistics is...
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FOOD RESOURCE: CA Meals for Kids Mobile App [cde.ca.gov]
From California Department of Education, March 2020 California Department of Education’s (CDE) “CA Meals for Kids” mobile app has been updated to help students and families find meals during COVID-19-related emergency school closures. The CA Meals for Kids mobile application helps you find nearby California Afterschool and Summer Meal Programs Sites through your iOS, Android, or Microsoft devices. [ Please click here for more information and to download the app .]
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For California Firefighters, How 'Mindfulness' Can Ease the Deadly Stress of Their Jobs [sacbee.com]
By Cathie Anderson, The Sacramento Bee, November 12, 2019 About three and a half years ago, paramedic Susan Farren underwent major surgery for kidney cancer, and as she lay in the recovery room, one of her doctors told her that he had treated quite a few first responders with organ cancers. The comment stuck with her. “I went home and started researching it after getting out of the hospital,” Farren said, “and for the next year and a half, that’s what I did every single day. I researched...
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For Community Health Centers, a Hands-On Guide to Building Partnerships [chcf.org]
By Carlina Hansen, California Health Care Foundation, October 15, 2019 Before joining CHCF, I spent almost 20 years as executive director of the Women’s Community Clinic in San Francisco. In my time there, we forged some valuable partnerships to serve our clients and community, including our merger with another community health center, HealthRIGHT 360. It was during the merger process that I learned first-hand one of the biggest challenges to forging such partnerships — and it wasn’t what I...
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Four California School Districts Ask Voters to Pay for Teacher and Staff Housing [edsource.org]
By Diana Lambert, EdSource, February 28, 2020 In a region with the largest disparity between teacher pay and housing costs in California, a Bay Area school district is the first in the nation to build affordable employee housing funded exclusively through a bond passed by local taxpayers. The Jefferson Union High School District in Daly City recently broke ground on the 122-unit housing project, which will be financed by a $33 million general obligation bond passed by voters in 2018. At the...
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From Clinic to Courtroom, Fighting for Immigrant Health Care [californiahealthline.org]
By Ana B. Ibarra, California Healthline, December 18, 2019 Jane Garcia started as an intern at La Clínica de La Raza in the late 1970s, attracted by its mission to provide health care to all — especially immigrants, regardless of their legal status or ability to pay. Forty years later, Garcia, 66, is the chief executive officer of the organization, which now operates more than 30 clinics in Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano counties and serves about 90,000 patients a year. About 65% of its...
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Full-Day Kindergarten Could Soon be Required in Every California School [edsource.org]
By Zaidee Stavely, EdSource, September 16, 2019 Kindergartners across California could soon be spending more time in their classrooms if Gov. Gavin Newsom signs a bill approved by the state Legislature last week. The legislation, Assembly Bill 197, introduced by Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, would require every public elementary school, including charter schools, to offer at least one kindergarten class the same length as 1st grade, beginning in the 2022-23 school year. Schools...
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Google to provide computers, internet to California students studying from home [sfchronicle.com]
By Alexei Koseff, San Francisco Chronicle, April 1, 2020 Google will provide thousands of computers and free internet access to help California students finish the school year online, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday. The company plans to donate 4,000 Chromebooks and make broadband internet available to 100,000 households through the end of the school year. Newsom said at a news conference that “Google stepped up in a big way,” but that more support was needed from the private sector to...
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Kaiser Permanente Seeks to Address Trauma in 25,000 Schools by 2023 [modernhealthcare.com]
By Steven Ross Johnson, Modern Healthcare, December 12, 2019 Oakland-based Kaiser Permanente on Thursday expanded its multi-year effort to provide tens of thousands of schools across the country with resources to help students and staff members cope with trauma and stress. The Resilience in School Environments, or RISE, project, will reach at least 25,000 schools by 2023, Kaiser said, as it provides mental health and wellness support to staff and students. The initiative began in 2017 to...
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Kids Under 12 Can No Longer be Sent to Juvenile Hall for Most Crimes Starting in 2020 [capradio.org]
By Steve Milne, Capital Public Radio, December 20, 2019 One of the last pieces of legislation from former California Gov. Jerry Brown’s final year in office would end the prosecution of pre-teens who commit crimes, other than murder and forcible sexual assault. Right now, California has no minimum age for sending children to juvenile hall. Beginning in the new year, counties will no longer be allowed to process kids under 12 years old through the juvenile justice system. Instead, they will...
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Know Your Rights: Paid Leave for Workers Impacted by COVID-19
From California Partnership to End Domestic Violence, March 23, 2020 As Californians are urged to stay home to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, workers across the state and their families are feeling the impact on their jobs and income, making the need for paid leave more apparent than ever. Join the California Work & Family Coalition, Legal Aid at Work, and the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence for short web-conferences addressing the access to paid leave and learning...
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Lali Moheno Champions Women Farm Workers' Wellness, Rights [thesungazette.com]
By Kaitlin Washburn, The Sun-Gazette, October 30, 2019 Lali Moheno threatened to divorce her husband when he wanted to move to Visalia for a new job. She was happy with their life in Ventura, Calif. She loved her job and the community. Plus, she didn’t have fond memories of periods during her childhood spent in Tulare County. Moheno’s parents toiled in the fields of California’s Central Valley and ranches in southern Texas throughout their lives and endured the hardships that all farmworkers...