public health

Several organizations representing executives in California who run county-level health and human services agencies have joined the growing list of public entities declaring racism a public health emergency. Issuing a statement on Wednesday that they recognize “the historic and ongoing harms of systemic racism” and pledging to address the problem were: the County Behavioral Health Directors Association of California, the County Welfare Directors Association of California, the County Health Executives Association of California and the California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems. 

After advocates pressed Los Angeles County health officials, the Department of Public Health will now inspect juvenile detention facilities administered by the county’s Probation Department. As health concerns for youth in detention mount, advocates in L.A.

With homelessness among women and children rising in Los Angeles, county leaders are looking to offer more home visiting services to new mothers and their babies living in shelters, jails and mental health facilities.

Amid a shrinking juvenile justice system, a new California bill is part of a statewide debate about how the state should serve young people at greatest risk of involvement with the criminal justice system.

Dr. Jonathan Sherin, director of the Department of Mental Health (DMH) for Los Angeles County, is thinking outside the box about ways to optimize mental health by preventing trauma. He sees working closely with the foster care system as critical, and he’s proposing to invest millions of DMH dollars to prove it.

Los Angeles County’s Board of Supervisors is moving quickly to address the role of public health nurses in child protection. On July 19, Supervisors Sheila Kuehl and Hilda Solis will issue a motion that would direct a handful of county agencies to determine the “feasibility, benefits and detriments, if any, and fiscal viability” of moving the 103 public health nurses employed by the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) to the Department of Public Health (DPH).

By Beth Cortez-Neavel Texas is taking serious steps toward using predictive data analytics, or “big data,” to prevent child deaths due to abuse and neglect. Not only are state officials finally catching on that child maltreatment is a public health issue, there are three new state-led efforts to curtail child deaths and maltreatment by using data to pinpoint specific warning signs at different community levels.

On February 18, the Child Sex Trafficking Subcommittee of San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee’s Task Force on Anti-Human Trafficking discussed the county’s plan to serve commercially sexually exploited children (CSEC) under a new program launched by the state.

Researchers from the University of Colorado, Aurora and the University of Rochester conducted a study to determine the effects of a public-health nurse home visitation program on at-risk mothers and children.