Category: California

‘I Can Go Anywhere’: How Service Dogs Help Veterans With PTSD

The PAWS for Veterans Therapy Act means more veterans with symptoms of traumatic stress can get specially trained service dogs.

California Joins States Trying to Shorten Wait Times for Mental Health Care

In California, health insurers blame long waits for therapy appointments on workforce shortages, but state lawmakers say that’s an excuse. A new law requires insurers to reduce wait times for mental health appointments to no more than 10 business days.

Etching the Pain of Covid Into the Flesh of Survivors

Memorial tattoos have grown more popular in recent years. Since parlors reopened after the lockdown, inkers have found that many people are eager to memorialize relatives and friends lost to covid.

Etching the Pain of Covid Into the Flesh of Survivors

Memorial tattoos have grown more popular in recent years. Since parlors reopened after the lockdown, inkers have found that many people are eager to memorialize relatives and friends lost to covid.

Stranded by the Pandemic, He Had Only Travel Insurance. It Left Him With a $38,000 Bill.

Although it’s possible to buy travel insurance that provides some health coverage, the devil is in the fine print. Obama-era laws that prevent refusal of payment for preexisting conditions don’t apply to travel insurance.

California Plans for a Post-Roe World as Abortion Access Shrinks Elsewhere

While other states dramatically restrict abortion and the conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court weighs Roe v. Wade, California is preparing to absorb the country’s abortion patients.

A Judge Takes His Mental Health Struggles Public

Tim Fall, a sitting judge in California’s Yolo County, decided to break the silence on his mental health issues with a book published during a campaign year. Depression and anxiety, he says, shouldn’t disqualify candidates from any profession.

Patients Went Into the Hospital for Care. After Testing Positive There for Covid, Some Never Came Out.

About 21% of patients diagnosed with covid during a hospital stay died, according to data analyzed for KHN. In-hospital rates of spread varied widely and patients had no way of checking them.

‘Not Quite on Board’: Parents Proving a Tough Sell on Covid Vax for Teens

Even as the U.S. prepares to roll out a covid-19 vaccine to elementary school-aged kids, its efforts to inoculate teenagers — who have been eligible for the shot since May — continue to meet with a lackluster response. So far, about half of kids 12 to 17 are fully vaccinated in the U.S., compared with […]

Labs With No One to Run Them: Why Public Health Workers Are Fleeing the Field

Across California, public health departments are losing experienced staffers to exhaustion, partisan politics and jobs that pay more for less work. The public health nurses, epidemiologists and microbiologists who work to keep our communities healthy are abandoning the field.