A new survey of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in the Coachella Valley generally shows good news: most participants are insured and say they’re in “good”, “very good” or “excellent” health. However, it also identified serious health gaps, showing that LGBT study participants have high rates of mental illness and domestic violence.
Teresa de los Santos put up with it for 14 years. The punching. The slapping. The constant surveillance. Now Teresa helps other victims as a counselor for Shelter From the Storm, which runs a network of domestic violence shelters in the Coachella Valley.
Elizabeth Luciano sits in her small office looking compassionately at the young mother complaining of stomach pain. She was undocumented and had no health insurance. They met at a community event a week before and the woman cautiously approached Luciano to see if she knew of anyone who could help with her Medi-Cal application. Luciano, a former hospital nutritionist in her home country of Columbia, told her it was safe to come to her office at the Pittsburg Health Center.
California requires that private insurance companies pay for an expensive autism therapy called Applied Behavior Analysis. But the state has declined to pay for the treatment as an automatic benefit for low-income children who receive public insurance, creating two classes of care for autistic children in the state.
A new report spotlights a harsh reality in the Eastern Coachella Valley: the water, air and soil there are polluted – significantly more so than the West Valley and Riverside County as a whole.
In the past two years, poverty rates in Riverside County rose from 12 percent to about 14 percent, according to the Community Action Partnership (CAP) Riverside, the agency charged with doing something about it.
Toxic waste dumps. Poor air quality. And the slow death of the Salton Sea. The Eastern Coachella Valley has serious environmental problems – and now locals are getting involved.
The new Clinton Health Matters Initiative, which aims to reduce suffering from preventable disease and close the gaps in health care access that are related to race, income and education, recently selected Southern California’s Coachella Valley as one of its sites.
A recent study found that organic produce was barely more healthy than fruits and vegetables grown with chemical fertilizers. HealthyCal’s Angela Bass toured a farmers’ market near the state Capitol to find out how farmers and customers were reacting to this news.
The dentist on a van – who is a stand-up comedian in his off hours – helps low-income kids in rural Yuba County keep a happy, healthy smile.