Being trauma-informed means understanding how trauma has impacted a person’s life, including their behavior and cognition.
Engaging in this type of dialogue can help survivors recognize when trauma is occurring and spare them from further harm. This involves providing a nonjudgmental, listening ear without jumping to problem-solving mode, and being careful not to insinuate that a survivor is to blame for the abuse.
Medi-Cal members might have mental health coverage in theory, but using it is a different story. People of color are less likely than white people to use mental health benefits, partially due to systemic inequities in the system. The same is true of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ+) youth.
Our communities care greatly about their mental health and the mental health of their loved ones, yet California’s promises to provide care fall short.
A program run by Monarch Services, a domestic violence intervention and prevention agency in Santa Cruz County, aims to help people responsible for domestic violence change their behavior patterns.
Called Positive Solutions, it encourages participants to tune into their emotions, practice nonviolent communication skills and identify negative childhood experiences that may have led them to express emotions in a violent way.
We are calling on the region’s leaders and residents to support a historic $500 million Bay Area Regional Black Housing Fund.
Black communities face multiple systemic barriers that lead to massive displacement in the Bay Area. Black people have been disadvantaged in the state’s housing market for decades because of discrimination, including redlining, unequal access to wealth and good jobs, and other systemic problems.
Because no one had talked with me as a teen about what a real, healthy relationship looks like, I didn’t know what to do when my boyfriend became abusive.
I eventually escaped and have spent the last several years healing. But I want to help others avoid what I went through, including preteens and teens who are just beginning to explore relationships.
Many families that foster and ultimately adopt children with disabilities encounter challenges such as receiving insufficient medical supplies to care for the children and incomplete information from child welfare agencies about the children’s health histories.
Foster families and their advocates are working to mend the gaps in the system that can cause undue stress on these children who, in most cases, have already been through trying times before coming into foster care.
My life changed when I moved away from my hometown in urban Southern California, when I was 27. It was difficult to see it then but being away from my support system meant I had no one close by to turn to when my relationship became abusive.
An even bigger barrier to escaping the abuse was the fact that I couldn’t find anywhere to take my pets. Survivors with pets like myself learn very quickly that most shelters cannot accommodate animals.
AG is a 2-month-old, healthy chubby baby with “Michelin man” rolls and pinchable cheeks, and he’s my patient. I’m a pediatric intern at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, a safety-net hospital in Los Angeles. When AG missed his checkup in late December, I was worried.
My colleague told me that AG recently had been in our emergency room. He tested positive for COVID-19.
One third of all Californians and nearly half of California children depend on Medi-Cal, California’s public health coverage program, for health care.
With so many people relying on Medi-Cal for health care, the state must do more to protect the rights of Californians and ensure access to every service they are entitled to.
California’s system for providing durable medical equipment and supplies at home is complicated and difficult to manage, even in normal times. During the COVID-19 pandemic, rationing and supply chain disruptions have made things impossible for families of children with special health care needs.
I believe California needs a state oversight office for durable medical equipment to give families and patients a way to resolve problems before they cause harm.