Five years ago, when Lisa Conn became a mental health provider for juvenile justice in Santa Barbara County, she noticed a disturbing trend: A large number of the incarcerated girls were displaying symptoms of complex trauma and, in particular, sex trauma.
Pediatric patients giving their health histories at the Center for Youth Wellness, a health clinic in the impoverished Bayview Hunter’s Point area of San Francisco, are asked for more than the usual details about allergies and current prescriptions.
On a late spring afternoon last year, Andrea* drove herself and her three children directly from her ex-husband’s home to the local police station, seeking protection for herself. She was shocked by what followed: a petition from the county that challenged her fitness as a parent on the grounds that she failed to protect them from an abuser.
Garen Wintemute has dedicated his career to preventing firearm deaths—a problem that has held steady at epidemic proportions in the United States for more than a decade and accounts for an average of 30,000 deaths each year.
On September 20, 2011, Rafael Zarate slipped an eight-inch kitchen knife into his boot and walked into the restaurant where his ex-girlfriend was just beginning her shift.
Native American women face a 2 in 5 chance of experiencing some form of intimate partner violence in their lifetime. In most of these cases – 86 percent – the perpetrator of the violence will be non-Native. These statistics, based on federal data, reflect a rate of violence against Native American women far greater than that experienced by any other ethnic group in the U.S.
Nestled in central California and flanked by the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, Tulare County is sometimes called the Appalachia of the West. It is home to the giant Sequoia trees; Mount Whitney towers over the county’s eastern edge. It’s also one of the most poverty-stricken regions of the state.
Physicians are a leading source of prescription opioids for those at the highest risk for abuse, according new research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The findings, published last Monday by JAMA Internal Medicine, undermine a popular belief that people who abuse narcotic pain relievers — including hydrocodone, oxycodone, and methadone — obtain them without a prescription.
Two patients, strangers to one another, chitchat comfortably about their pets in the waiting room of Lyon Martin Health Services in San Francisco. Another patient says that her appointment at Lyon Martin is the highlight of her day as she makes her way back to the exam room.
For two years, she had been trying — and failing — to get away from the violence and abuse. She worried not only about her own safety, but also the safety of her three young children. She wanted a divorce. She wanted custody. But despite her efforts, this resident of Contra Costa County faced a seemingly insurmountable challenge.