Despite warnings that the health of the state’s 14 million Medi-Cal beneficiaries would be threatened, on Jan. 1, California implemented Medi-Cal Rx, a program that stripped pharmacy benefits from health plans and handed them to a private, for-profit company.
Now, a month into the new program, there are reports that thousands of Medi-Cal patients have been left without their medications.
Across California, organizations are working on anti-violence solutions to improve outcomes for parents and their babies. Efforts include working with physicians to better detect and help pregnant people who are experiencing abuse.
Women are more than twice as likely to die from homicide during pregnancy and the year following childbirth than from hypertensive disorders, hemorrhage and infection.
Intimate partner violence has escalated over the past two years. Research points to economic distress, increased time indoors with abusive partners, and worsening mental health as exacerbating factors.
I wanted to better understand this crisis, which often flies under the radar. So I reached out to several advocates and practitioners to find out more about intimate partner violence and how some organizations are leveraging community healing practices to address the problem.
California’s education system needs more social, emotional and sexual health education that recognizes the racial and gender identities of young people. Prevention programs can meet this need.
California’s legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom should include $15 million in ongoing funding in the state budget. By combining prevention and intervention funding, we can address the needs of survivors of violence and also prevent future violence.
As a California high school student, I have become aware of one of the biggest health threats facing some of my peers: The lack of a stable home.
I believe access to housing is an individual right and a community need. The most fundamental health-related need is housing. A home is more than just a place to live. Lack of housing and high rents directly impact health, hygiene, safety and the ability to combat illnesses—especially during a pandemic.
In many Asian Americans communities, reluctance to seek mental health care is common. A 2007 study found that less than 9 percent of Asian-Americans sought any type of mental health services compared to nearly 18 percent of the general population nationwide.
According to experts familiar with the Asian American experience, stigma, pressure to live up to the myth of Asian American success, and culturally inappropriate services prevent people from getting the mental health care they need.
A coalition of Latinx parents is suing Harbor Regional Center, alleging discrimination against Latinx children and adults with disabilities and demanding more services.
The lawsuit accuses the center of routinely dismissing Latinx families’ requests for help, of providing less comprehensive services than needed, and of burdening families with unnecessary requirements as well as failing to adequately inform them when services are canceled or changed.
The Omicron variant has fueled a dramatic spike in COVID-19 cases across the country and Southern California. The rising COVID-19 cases may prompt hospitals and clinics to reinforce visitor restrictions to control the spread.
These restrictions can inadvertently compromise the quality of care of all patients—but pose unique challenges for Latinx immigrants and their families.
Our educational system was unequal even before the pandemic. Those inequalities were exacerbated when students transitioned to learning from home.
Black, Latinx and Native American students suffered the most. Not only did they suddenly find themselves isolated from their schools and peers, but their families were disproportionately impacted by job losses, unequal access to health care and vulnerability to COVID-19.
The final installment of this five-part series about Los Angeles County’s unique Maternal Health Diversion Program explores the pressing need for LA’s Office of Diversion and Reentry to scale up its diversion capacity. Thus far, the money to do so hasn’t been there.
The Maternal Health Diversion program pulls pregnant people from the county’s women’s jail and places them in interim group housing until they’re ready to move into their own permanent housing with their children. All the while, participants receive a broad array of services.