By Todd R. Brown
To some immigrants, the details of Western medicine lie in unfamiliar territory, so certain maladies wind up being treated by traditional healers rather than modern medical practitioners.
To remedy that dichotomy, Fresno County plans to open a holistic wellness center that will link Hmong, Latinos and other groups with spiritually fulfilling as well as evidence-based solutions to mental health worries.
By Lynn Graebner
On a 100-acre ranch in the foothills northeast of Salinas, 28 students, many of whom are on probation, are building a house. When it’s finished, it will shelter some of them from the violence in their own neighborhoods. This Youth Build project is one of the first steps in an extensive expansion of Rancho Cielo Youth Campus in Salinas. The nonprofit provides young people who are on probation, parole or are at risk of gang affiliation a chance to earn a high school diploma, get job training and a healthy dose of self esteem.
By Minerva Perez
Jails were meant to hold people for short stays, but are now housing prisoners with sentences as long as 23 years, without the necessary resources for longer stays, such as medical care and other social services programs that help rehabilitate prisoners.
By Julissa McKinnon
Now that Sayuri Linet Salazar is feeling healthy again, the 19-year-old admits she’s sometimes tempted to abandon the time-consuming treatment for her tuberculosis. The college student of Ensenada, Mexico said she’s grown tired of planning her life around medication. Researchers at UC San Diego hope that a new video tool they are developing prevents patients like Salazar from defecting treatment by making it more convenient for doctors to monitor their medical intake.
By Genevieve Bookwalter
Veronica Villalobos mans a desk in a crowded waiting room at St. James Health Center in San Jose. She’s looking for those whose low income — less than $699 per month for a single person — might qualify them for free medical care. Villalobos wants to find those patients. Her job as patient navigator is to sign them up with Valley Care—Santa Clara County’s newest program providing health insurance for the very poor.
The county’s first target? Patients with little money who don’t qualify for other public health programs. By county estimates, that includes about 23,500 residents.
By Enrique Gili
An organic farm helps soldiers adjust to civilian life and makes farmers out of former fighters.
By Brenda Duran
The national dialogue on the obesity epidemic continues, but city leaders in Long Beach are moving past the talk and springing into action with a citywide mission to get people moving. This past month, city officials agreed to pass legislation for a new initiative, called “Move Long Beach,” that would make exercise and nutrition part of the city’s master plan.
By Chris Richard
A growing body of science has confirmed that dirty freeway air undermines the health of those living nearby, and regulators are studying mitigation measures. But activists say a more pervasive danger has received too little attention: lead in the exhaust of propeller-driven aircraft that routinely fly in and out of small regional airports.
By Robert Fulton
Jesus Lopez is stressed out. Lopez stands outside his small South Los Angeles apartment on a clear, cloudless California afternoon., his black-and-white tabby cat Sylvester encircling his legs. His home has been foreclosed upon and is now the property of U.S. Bank. But the long-time South L.A. resident’s worry isn’t that his own personal American Dream of home ownership is threatened. No, Lopez is stressed because he, like many in South Los Angeles, rents. With his apartment now the property of the bank, Lopez doesn’t know what the future holds.
By Callie Shanafelt
A hotline for seniors – a group at high risk for suicide – helps people manage the emotions that come with aging.