As the only openly HIV-positive public official in San Francisco, I applaud Gov. Jerry Brown for signing into law Senate Bill 239, which modernizes the outdated HIV criminalization laws in California.
Aging
Recent federal budget conversations are putting these programs that California seniors rely on at risk.
There’s still debate over which programs work best in California, and how to help the most amount of people in a cost-effective way. I say: If you want to know how to help Latino seniors, start by asking them.
LGBT Seniors in San Francisco find an affordable home and unique space to build community with others thanks to a partnership with Openhouse and Mercy Housing.
In-Home Supportive Services is California’s major in-home care program for people with disabilities. But what happens when the person who needs the care doesn’t have a home where services can be provided?
What many California seniors and older adults don’t realize is that California offers a respite for them when their parents or other family members become ill. A surprisingly low number of caregivers take advantage of the temporary relief, which is automatically deducted from employees’ paychecks.
The combination of soaring rents and aging baby boomers has created an insatiable demand for affordable housing in California. Thousands of people apply just to get on a wait list. As a result, some low-income seniors die still hoping for a place of their own. In the meantime, they cram into shared spaces, live with family, sleep on couches or even end up homeless.
A federal effort to clamp down on Medicare fraud has inadvertently opened up new possibilities for fraudsters who prey on the elderly, prompting a California-wide education campaign. While federal officials hope the change will make it harder for criminals to steal Social Security numbers and benefit fraudulently from the Medicare system, criminals are apparently seizing on news about the change to take advantage of unsuspecting seniors.
Drug labels can pose a huge challenge for non English-speakers. Inability to read labels can put them at risk of taking the wrong medicine or dosage, of failing to adhere to instructions that minimize side effects, and may even lead them to give up taking needed medications altogether.
The Chinatown Service Center is the largest community-based Chinese-American health and human service organization in Southern California, serving immigrants, refugees and others in need of assistance. The center, which largely serves those who have nowhere else to go, would not be a robust social or medical refuge if it were not for the Affordable Care Act.
Originally prescribed opioids for foot pain, 67-year-old veteran nurse George Ates eventually found himself on a fentanyl patch that would swiftly kill someone who hadn’t built up a high tolerance to opioids. On the surface, Ates appears to be another of the millions of Americans caught up in the nation’s epidemic of opioid drug use. While one may think of the phenomenon as on that has mostly swept up younger adults, Ates’ struggles are actually commonplace at California’s hospitals.