What happens when a shoddily built trailer park in Thermal, which housed mostly poor undocumented farmworkers, is hit by a flood.
Author: Suzanne Potter
On a recent Saturday hundreds of families waited patiently in punishing 108 degree heat – for the chance to get an eye exam and a pair of glasses – in Thermal, California.
Pertussis, the highly contagious disease better known as whooping cough, killed ten infants in the state in 2010 and infected 9,000 people: the most in 60 years. But California hasn’t seen a single death from the disease in 2011 or in the first half of 2012.
Last week Governor Brown signed the 911 Good Samaritan law, which is intended to prevent deaths from drug overdose. The law gives limited immunity to people who call 911 to get help for a friend who has overdosed – neither they nor the victim will be prosecuted for possession of a small amount of drugs. The law is aimed at reducing the accidental poisonings – mostly drug overdoses – that kill 87 people each day in the U.S.
A new study by the Health Access Resource Center shows that 28.6 percent of residents 18 to 64 are uninsured. That’s compared to 21.3 percent nationwide, according to the 2011 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). That same survey showed that 1 in 5 Californians under age 65 lack health insurance and 9.2 percent of children in the Golden State are uninsured.
A nonprofit program in Riverside County reaches out to undocumented, uninsured and poor residents to connect them to health services for which they are eligible.
For Ron Oden, the imaginary conversations were the first sign that his wife Felicia was becoming mentally ill. He recently recalled his Felicia’s battle with paranoid schizophrenia at a Summit on Mental Illness hosted by the Coachella Valley Health Collaborative (CVHC) at Cal State San Bernardino’s Palm Desert campus. The Mental Health Summit is the first part of a campaign funded by a $100,000 grant from Riverside County to improve awareness of mental health issues, increase access to treatment, and reduce stigma.
Coachella Valley Volunteers in Medicine is the only free clinic in the entire Coachella Valley. “We’re kind of the safety net underneath all of the other safety nets,” explains Executive Director Bruce Yeager.
Thousands of families in the eastern Coachella Valley work in low-wage industries with no health insurance; many are migrants who can’t see a doctor regularly; and many are undocumented, and thus must seek care at low-cost or free clinics or the nearest emergency room.