This story is part of a four-part series on Dec. 2, 2015, terrorist attack survivors’ recovery and California’s workers’ compensation system. The project was undertaken for the USC Center for Health Journalism’s California Fellowship.
While the quest to repeal the Affordable Care Act is dead for now, many disabled Americans say the fight for their health care -- and the other fundamental rights it guarantees by extension -- is never really over.
More than a third of children with special needs rely entirely on Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program for their care. Cuts to Medicaid funding could prove disastrous for such families.
A first-of-its-kind CDC report on arthritis gained hardly any notice in the media recently. Given the prevalence of the disease in the U.S., why aren’t health reporters devoting more coverage to this issue?
“We were really struck by the fact that people were incredibly acute in their need,” a disability rights attorney said after touring Sonoma County's main jail. “Higher than we’ve seen in units that are licensed designated hospital units. Something was wrong here.”
Cornelius James Evans had just turned 18 when he died, before his mother could establish formal legal guardianship, and the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities is now using that to deny her a copy of its investigation into his death.
The state has not put a good system in place to support developmentally disabled patients moved from state facilities into community care, and it’s unclear if it is following recommendations to better investigate patient deaths, according to an independent monitor.
What began as two Georgia mental health patients seeking community care has become a national crusade by the U.S. Department of Justice to move patients out of state facilities and into community care, with what some say are fatal consequences.
Christen Shermaine Hope Gordon was one of 500 patients in 2013 who died in community care while under the auspices of the Georgia Dept. of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. While the community placements were halted, parents are worried over state plans to resume the program.
The Augusta Chronicle requested the investigative reports of all 2013 deaths of developmentally disabled people living in community-based care homes. Here's how the reporters used those records.
