Nearly a quarter of American children age 5 and under suffer from tooth decay, and minority children have untreated cavities at twice the rate of non-Hispanic white children, according to new data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A group of dental surgical centers that treat children and people with disabilities say that Health Plan of San Joaquin (HPSJ) has recently started to deny routine claims for services, and that if it continues they’ll likely be forced to close their doors.
In this story we go to South Los Angeles where an innovative program is improving oral health by bringing dental care to schools, nursing homes and residential facilities, virtually.
In this story we go to Los Angeles, where Oliver Brown developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder growing up on the streets of Hollywood until the non-profit organization My Friend’s Place helped him find a path to an independent and healthy lifestyle.
Bella Schwartzbord, who turned 100 in August, recently added jewelry making to her busy schedule of playing Bingo, practicing yoga and taking walks. While she’s aging successfully, her daughter, Sarah Gelberd, M.D., knows that many older adults across California aren’t faring as well.
Chanel, a petite African American woman with sleek hair and hazel eyes, trembles as she remembers the last time her husband beat her. He struck her with one chair and then another. “They broke on my body as I tried to hide my face…. When I went to the hospital, I thought, Now’s my chance. I’ve got to go. I’ve got to save me and my kids.”
A few years ago, Kathleen Hamilton became a foster mom to 13 and 14 year old boys, who also happened to be her nephews. Both needed extensive dental work, and the services were to be covered by the state’s Medi-Cal program. But year after year, Hamilton ran into a snag.
In this story, you’ll meet Veronica Mayes-Jackson, a Kitchen Diva who’s educating members of her community in Los Angeles about how to change their lifestyle in order to improve their health. Learn more about the Kitchen Divas and their parent organization, Black Women for Wellness, in our profile of the organization.
Black Women for Wellness of Los Angeles began with baby steps: In 1997, Janette Robinson Flint and five of her friends agreed to look after 22 pregnant women as a hedge against African-American infant mortality.
An 8-year-old boy with autism ran up to a booth where a small robot named Nao sat on a display table at a technology conference a few years ago. Nao was “looking” around. When the child touched the robot’s shiny white and blue body, its sensors engaged, and it turned its head and began to ask the boy questions in a pleasant, computerized voice.