Jade Martinez-Pogue
Assignment Editor/Digital Content Producer
Assignment Editor/Digital Content Producer
I joined KEYT in Santa Barbara in January 2022 as an assignment editor and digital content producer. As a 2021 Center for Health Journalism Data Fellow, I investigated Santa Barbara County's lack of mental health inpatient beds and identified other gaps in mental health services. Previously, I was a staff writer with Noozhawk, an online-only publication that brings around-the-clock news coverage to Santa Barbara County residents. As a general assignment reporter, I covered a wide variety of topics but primarily stick to county government and the COVID-19 pandemic. I graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 2020
Santa Barbara County plans to add another co-response team and reopen its crisis stabilization unit as a locked facility.
A reporter takes pride in stories that are "building blocks" for bigger changes.
Noozhawk review finds significant shortcomings in the $1.5 million voluntary facility for patients in need of psychiatric crisis care.
Noozhawk review finds local patients being shuttled throughout California due to inadequacy of county’s 16-bed psychiatric health facility.
Noozhawk analysis of health care data finds lack of proper facilities taking catastrophic personal toll, increasing pressure on hospital emergency services.
With only 16 acute care mental health beds in Santa Barbara County, residents are transported as far as San Diego to get access to life-or-death care.