The Deamonte Driver Dental Project was real. It was here. Yet the job of bringing adequate dental care to the poor children of Prince George's County would not be a simple one. State and national public-health officials have been grappling with the same challenges: to educate both poor people and dentists; to address the historic breach between oral health care and the rest of health care; to confront the vast gaps in the dental public-health system.
This story is Part 1 of a 15-part series that examines health care needs in Gary, Ind.
With the number of traffic fatalities on the rise, San Francisco is quickly becoming one of the country's most dangerous cities to navigate on foot.
Three-part series on obesity in Merced County
Part 1: Merced's growing problem of obesity in life's stages
Part 2: Teens have easy access to unhealthy foods
Part 3: From binge eating to getting fit
The gantry cranes at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach tower high above acres of stacked shipping containers – Hanjin, Matson, China Shipping – lined up along the harbor. These ports process 40 percent of container goods that arrive by ship in the United States; they directly or indirectly employ more than 120,000 people and generate billions of dollars in tax revenue each year.
The circumstances of where and how you are born, grow up, live, work and grow old shape your health, just as your genes and lifestyle do. The growing field of "social determinants of health" focuses on the impact of these socioeconomic factors on health. Education, politics, violence, income, access to health care, social support, culture, transportation, environmental hazards, physical living conditions and even racism are topics for policymakers, researchers and journalists to consider as they examine health and health disparities within communities, nations and the world.
As Americans struggle with the aftermath of the health care reform bill, and try to determine exactly what it means for themselves and their families, the homeless population is often ignored. Most assume that homeless Americans get free medical care, but that is not necessarily the case. Even those who do have government-sponsored health care are forced to make difficult choices when health must compete with food, shelter, and transportation. This ongoing series of stories will detail the plight of the 'sick and homeless' in Riverside, California.
Veteran journalist Dan Weintraub today launches a new website dedicated to helping Californians better understand and talk about public health and community health, broadly defined. Supported by The California Endowment, the state’s largest health philanthropy (which also supports ReportingonHealth), HealthyCal.org will also examine land use, transportation, poverty, food and criminal justice issues as they relate to health.
