My son is able to live at home with our family, attend school and interact with the world because we live in a nation where disabled people have civil rights.
When I hear President Trump talk about eliminating diversity, equality, inclusion and accessibility, he’s not just attacking civil rights for disabled people — he’s sending a message to kids like my son that they don’t belong.
Health care and disability rights advocates are gearing up to make sure politicians understand that there is no way to cut Medicaid without hurting people who need care. Sharing real people’s stories will be key to that effort.
California Health Report’s disability rights columnist Jennifer McLelland offers her tips on how to tell your family’s story.
For many people, the holidays are an opportunity to come together with family and foster connections and belonging. However, for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, it can be a time of increased abuse, reliving traumatic past events, and not receiving the appropriate supports for safety.
But there are solutions that can help survivors feel supported, as Carolina Morales explains.
Barbara Schmitz’s early experiences as an attorney helping survivors of domestic violence file for restraining orders opened her eyes to the impacts the carceral systems can have on families looking for emotional or mental health support.
In this essay, Schmitz reminds us of the Indigenous roots of restorative justice techniques and makes the case for using restorative justice models in schools.
The Affordable Care Act has saved countless families with medically complex children, including columnist Jennifer McLelland’s. Her son was born without a functional airway and quickly racked up more than $1 million in medical bills. The ACA protected her family– but these protections are not guaranteed.
When it comes to marginalized communities, there’s a historically justified suspicion of formal organizations.
But there are solutions that all groups using restorative justice approaches can implement to be more inclusive.
With the help of a faith-based restorative justice program in Los Angeles I was able to choose forgiveness and find healing for myself and my son.
I made a decision that I was not going to raise my son with hatred. I was going to show him grace in an empowering way. It became my goal to bring about restoration.
Trixie is a young woman in her mid-20s who recently left an abusive relationship with a boyfriend. She came to my workplace, Walnut Avenue Family & Women’s Center, in Santa Cruz, seeking help from our restorative justice program.
What she was looking for wasn’t an accountability process for her abusive ex-boyfriend, but a means of addressing the trust broken by her friends who didn’t believe that the abuse was real.
I spent a recent afternoon querying three major chatbots on some medical questions that I already knew the answers to. I wanted to test the kind of information that AI can provide.
“How do you go surfing while using a ventilator?” I typed. It was an obviously silly question. But Meta’s AI suggested using “a waterproof ventilator designed for surfing” and “set the ventilator to the appropriate settings for surfing.”
California’s about to bail programs overboard as it works to keep the state afloat amidst a huge budget deficit. It’s a problem, and I’m concerned for some programs that help children with special health care needs.
But I wanted to take a moment to talk about something that I don’t often bring up. Overall, California has the best health care for children and youth with special health care needs.