The legislature is expected to vote this month on three bills that seek to safeguard and improve the health of Californian residents. The bills take aim at health disparities among people covered by the state’s low-income health program known as Medi-Cal and the improper discharge of homeless patients from the hospital.
As California struggles to meet children’s mental health needs, lawmakers are pressing for two bills that would take steps to address the problem.
The bills seek to strengthen mental health services for children and youth, either through targeted funding or by instituting new training requirements for people who regularly work with young people.
New data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show’s children’s oral health has improved across the nation, but race-based gaps in the prevalence of dental cavities and their treatment persist.
As my generation has grown up, we have had to bear witness to more and more reports of gun violence—like the school shooting Friday in Santa Fe, Texas.
This is an issue so many people stand for, because it comes down to one basic thing: safety.
As a youth advocate, it’s my personal responsibility to help fix forms of injustice where I see them. I will be using my voice, along with other youth to stop gun violence, whether by participating in national walkouts to get Congress aware of our concerns or by badgering our representatives for comprehensive reform. If our representatives disregard us because of our age and supposed lack of knowledge, then we’ll know who to vote out when we turn 18.
Preterm birth is a public health issue, contributing to infant death rates and also long-term physical and mental health problems in children born prematurely.
My school has its own on campus police that continues to criminalize young black and brown students. We are being over-policed, and our schools are slowing becoming prisons. We cannot arm our teachers as if they are maximum-security prison guards.
Gun violence has taken too many lives and there needs to be a change.
In addition to finding housing, homeless families must also find accommodations that keep the family intact, which in many parts of the state leaves them with few—if any—options.
The penalties were made public earlier this year but received little attention, though they were the first issued by the agency for privacy breaches since 2016. The California Department of Public Health rarely publicizes patient privacy violations, even though they are often accompanied by fines that dwarf those for medical errors that endanger the lives of patients.
California’s skilled nursing facilities are increasingly putting their residents’ health in jeopardy, yet the state is failing to adequately crack down on the problem, according to a report released Tuesday.
Citations for substandard care at skilled nursing facilities statewide increased by almost a third between 2006 and 2015, according to the report from the California State Auditor. Over the same period, profits for the state’s three biggest private operators of nursing homes soared by tens of millions of dollars, even as the number of nursing facility beds barely changed.