As rumors swirl in Los Angeles communities about proposed changes to federal immigration policy on who is considered a “public charge,” medical and legal aid providers are countering misinformation they say is putting immigrants’ health at risk.
Disparities
A growing number of psychiatry residents at UCLA are training to help thousands of people in Los Angeles who are homeless and suffer from mental illness. Students concerned about social justice have spurred the change.
In California, we spend so much time considering the future of work, we often ignore a far more critical conversation: the future of workers.
As Latanja Madison’s release date from prison inched closer, she felt more terrified than elated. During a decade behind bars at the California Institution for Women in Corona, her immediate family members passed away. She feared leaving prison may lead to a worse fate – habitual homelessness.
According to a new study, enforcement of California’s toxic chemical labeling law has resulted in a significant decrease in the amount of lead found in certain candies and colorful purses.
Advocates say a plan to turn a grassy lot in Oxnard into a port storage facility is part of a pattern of disregarding poor communities living near California’s ports. These neighborhoods are often saddled with disproportionate amounts of industrial pollution compared to more affluent locales further away from port facilities.
A coalition of 133 health-related groups in California are calling for $2 million from the governor and state legislature for a statewide task force to stamp out a mounting public health syndemic of HIV, hepatitis C and sexually transmitted diseases. The proposed task force would pool health resources from around the state to set target dates to end the HIV, hepatitis C and STD epidemics.
Throughout California, low-income public-school students are guaranteed at least one free or low-cost healthy meal each school day. That same law doesn’t apply to public preschools or to child care programs operated by school districts or county offices of education that serve low-income children. But that could soon change.
More than 85,000 of California’s most vulnerable low-income residents, including those who are homeless and have been recently incarcerated, are now enrolled in a pilot project designed to link health care to social services.
Noting rising suicide rates and mental health problems among the state’s youth, a bill in the California Senate would require all new teachers to have mental health first-aid training.