I recently introduced Senate Bill 387 to help teachers and school-based staff receive training on how to recognize the signs of a mental health crisis.
Although teachers and school-based staff are not trained mental health professionals, they are in a unique position to support youth who need help. By equipping teachers with the training needed to recognize the signs of someone experiencing a mental health or substance use challenge, we’ll help ensure students don’t slip through the cracks.
The legacy of redlining in Fresno isn’t just linked to housing access. It also has deadly effects on air quality and preterm birth.
People living in substandard housing, a problem tied to redlining, are more likely to be exposed to wildfire smoke. This exposure can hurt pregnant people and the children they carry.
Most older adults want to stay in their homes and communities as they age. To do that, many eventually need assistance with routine and personal care.
But 40 percent of older adults and adults with disabilities in California who need help to stay in their homes report receiving either no help at all or not enough.
Black Californians have one of the lowest life expectancies in California. This is despite the fact that the vast majority of these residents have some form of insurance coverage and consistently demonstrate a strong interest in taking care of their health.
This contradiction begs the question: What is wrong with health care for Black Californians?
As a psychiatrist, I regularly see patients with severe, life-threatening addictions to digital content, including social media.
If we hope to reverse the current trends afflicting our children, we must hold the large, multi-billion-dollar companies responsible for the part they play in creating highly addictive products.
I made the choice to continue a high-risk pregnancy, but I honor the choice of any pregnant person who opts to terminate given the same set of facts.
What I don’t like is seeing ableism — that is, prejudice against adults and children with disabilities — rolled into discussions about abortion, as has happened often since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
As wildfires and other natural disasters increase due to our warming climate, so too do risks to domestic violence survivors and others vulnerable to abuse during times of disruption.
Because about 1 in 4 women and nearly 1 in 10 men will experience physical or sexual violence or stalking by an intimate partner during their lifetime, disaster planning that doesn’t listen to the needs of domestic violence survivors can leave a vulnerable population to cope on their own.
Community health workers and promotoras are stepping in more to help vulnerable populations navigate lifesaving services, and access to them is now a Medical benefit.
But without proactive outreach to Medi-Cal-eligible Californians about the availability of promotoras, there is great risk that we will not reach the very people who need them most.
Paid Family Leave and State Disability Insurance are supposed to prevent low-income Californians from falling into poverty or homelessness when they need to take time off work.
But the program is largely an empty promise for these patients because the benefits replace only 60 percent of income. Two of my patients are among the many Californians caught in this trap.
At the California Alliance, we hear story after story of foster youth housed in county welfare offices and hotels because there are not enough placements for them in the child welfare system.
It horrifies us to think that these youth, many of whom were abused or severely neglected, are now having to live in unofficial shelters while they wait to be placed with a foster family.