The beds lie in neat rows in the dim light, elongated shallow bowls of heavy plastic, each cradling a waterproof mattress.
They’re built to contain the urine and vomit of drunkenness, then to be ready for service again after a quick wash and treatment with disinfectant.
Over the past 40 years, the contract between a technology company and its workers has changed dramatically, with ageism a clear consequence.
Mick Smyer launched the website Graying Green to help foster a social movement that would “energize older adults around what is arguably our most important issue.” And where others – including climate change scientists – only saw tired victims, Smyer saw possibilities.
Launched in 2013, the Asthma Impact Model, focuses on helping low-income families in the Central Valley better manage their children’s asthma, thus avoiding ER visits. The program was designed by the Central California Asthma Collaborative and Clinica Sierra Vista, a Fresno health clinic.
Long considered the step before hospice, palliative care can actually be offered at any stage of a serious illness and focuses on humane treatment. It is sometimes called “comfort care.” It’s quickly becoming mainstream just as hospice – unknown before the 1970s – has now become standard medical procedure for those with fewer than six months to live.
To combat high absentee rates, a Fresno middle school has put a health clinic on campus. It’s a full-blown clinic, which features primary-care services, pediatric care and immunizations. The school district said during a board meeting last year that the free clinics would be paid for by health providers and federal subsidies.
For youths on probation, the club is an Evening Reporting Center, which provides an alternative to juvenile hall. Those assigned to the center by the Ventura County Probation Agency must attend the Boys & Girls Club’s Teen Center every day after school, usually for between 20 and 45 days.
Overwhelmed family caregivers feel lost and frustrated, unable to navigate a fragmented and confusing system of support that should integrate adult daycare, long-term care and respite care for exhausted caregivers, while educating families on complex topics like dementia.
At some point in our lives, if we don’t slow down on our own, we are forced to slow down. Early Baby Boomers are now in their 60’s. Many of them are still working, but they may eventually need caregivers.
Californians voted to legalize adult use of marijuana last November, but the change in law has introduced a quandary for health educators who teach teens about drug use.