Preventing disparities at forefront of health care reform
These are the types of unprecedented — yet uncontroversial — disease prevention initiatives whose inclusion has been lost in the rancorous debate over health care reform legislation working its way through Congress.
The prevention provisions mark a victory for advocates and federal lawmakers who for years have unsuccessfully sought more federal funding to close the gap in health disparities and life expectancies between richer and poorer Americans.
Reclaiming health: Residents battle to overcome health inequities
A church boardroom seems like an oasis in an area so crime-ridden that iron fences topped with spikes protect most homes. Inside the church, residents settle into padded leather chairs to plan a better future for the East Oakland neighborhood of Sobrante Park. They want to reduce crime, decrease neighborhood blight, and reopen a park closed years ago after a homicide.
"It's been known as a very dangerous area," said the Rev. Jeffrey Parker, who left a comfortable home in Berkeley when he moved to Sobrante Park four years ago to lead the neighborhood's only church.
It's the relationships formed around the conference table in the Community Reformed Church that create the momentum for change.
In East Bay, where pollution goes, health problems follow
In the program's first phase, county health employees who visit pregnant women and young mothers in their homes will assist them with their financial concerns and help them apply for public benefits, repair their credit ratings, open checking or savings accounts, and use prepaid debit cards.
So what does this have to do with health?
Three East Bay ZIP codes, life-and-death disparities
On most Saturday mornings, Richard Angelis hops onto his bicycle to join his biking group, the Alamo Crazies, for their weekly ride through rural Contra Costa County. He lives in Walnut Creek on a tree-lined street in ZIP code 94597, where life expectancy is 87.4 years, the highest in any ZIP code in the East Bay.
"I always look forward to my Saturday morning rides," said Angelis, a fit 58-year-old who bikes about 70 miles a week. "It's a good stress relief after working all week."
But 12 miles southwest of Angelis' home, in the Oakland neighborhood of Sobrante Park, there are nights when Calixto Orantes, 53, hits the ground in a cold sweat inside his small rented home
Richmond General Plan 2010: Planning Like it's 1979
Laotian community fights Chevron, environmental injustice
Housing Campaign
Richmond residents have been hit hard by the foreclosure crisis. With
nearly 2000 foreclosed homes owned by banks and more likely to come,
heighborhoods are being torn apart.
This crisis illustrates the need for accountability from financial institutions the need for more effective policies at all levels of government that will stabilize communities by keeping families in their homes, revitalizing neighborhoods, and promoting affordable housing for Richmond residents.
Reducing violence from one ‘hood to the next
In front of a diverse crowd of about 300, 19-year-old Phon Chanthanask made a declaration he was proud of.
“I am not a high school dropout. I am not a drug dealer or a gang banger. I am not the negative of Richmond, California,” said Chanthanasak at the Sixth Annual Youth Stopping Violence Summit on Saturday.
