In West Oakland, Rev. Donna Allen is trying to make sure church members understand that it’s not just faith that they can lean on when facing mental health problems. Alameda County has invested more than $1 million to help groups bring mental health services to underserved communities.
California's Alameda County is trying a new angle to improve mental health care in black communities by tapping into African-American churches. Once members receive special training, their churches are declared places that can offer support and connect people to resources to find help.
A key goal of health reform has been to get insured individuals to seek out primary care rather than the ER. In the Bay Area, safety net systems are trying new approaches to funnel more patients into primary care, including putting nurses in firehouses.
Finding real people can be one of the hardest parts of journalism, but it is also usually one of the most rewarding and moving. So don't give up. Keep reaching out, and eventually someone will reach back.
For two years, Alameda County officials and public health providers traveled to Cuba to study nationalized health care - a system that spends relatively little, but emphasizes primary and preventative care, and enjoys low infant mortality, long life expectancies and other strong health measures.
Asthma is the most common cause of hospital stays for children. It can strike anyone, but has a disproportionate impact on low-income and African-American children. Katy Murphy, a 2012 National Health Journalism Fellow, shares lessons learned from her Fellowship project for the Oakland Tribune
Californians foot the bill for one of the largest prison systems in the world. This series looked beyond the tremendous financial costs of incarceration and examined the collateral damage to individuals, families and whole communities in Oakland.
Alameda County California has put together a comprehensive re-entry program to help ex-offenders surmount common hurdles. And for some, reentry requires adjustment to a shifting social landscape that bears little resemblance to the world one left behind.
California's prison system reform effort is described as the biggest shift in the criminal justice system in the past 25 years. As counties move forward with their plans, issues have arisen about how the state has allocated funding.
The cycling of mostly men of color through the California prison system and onto the streets of Oakland is a revolving door that impacts communities and the families that deal with having a brother, father, son or mother who has spent time in prison.
