Insights

<p>In the richest county in California lies a motley assemblage of residents living aboard a flotilla of weather-worn boats in a narrow bay sandwiched between Sausalito and Tiburon.</p>

<p>The realm of AIDS/HIV and its prevalence in the African-American community is not one that has gone untouched, yet the problem continues to get worse. A new CEHJF Fellow describes her upcoming reporting project.</p>

<p>Seven years after voters passed Proposition 63 -- the landmark legislation that was supposed to radically improve mental health care in the state -- California is facing a deepening statewide mental health crisis. As the state struggles under the weight of a lingering recession and an enormous deficit, county mental health programs are often failing to provide care for even the sickest patients. In many cases, the minimal safety net that used to exist is disintegrating.</p>

<p>More Americans on anti-depressants and other behavioral drugs, lobbying for chemicals in California and good news for chunky kids, plus more in our Daily Briefing.</p>

<p>Few health writers in the country understand the whys and hows of health insurance as well as Lisa Zamosky, a former industry insider. In our Q&amp;A, she talks about juggling several freelance gigs and her transition from insurance to journalism.</p>

<p>Most of the people match the scenery—beautiful. But many struggle with ugly addictions to alcohol, heroin, marijuana and most prevalent, methamphetamine.</p>

<p>How does environmental degredation correlate with the recent spike in substance abuse (and particularly meth) on the Hoopa reservation? And what is (or isn't) being done about it?</p>

<p>Residents in the small town of Novato, Calif., are aging quickly and their slow-growth community may not be keeping up.&nbsp;For my project, I will examine what it will take to accomodate the changing demographics, and question whether a significant--and growing--population is being ignored in the state's wealthiest county.</p>

<p>Issues surrounding sexuality can be a difficult topic for many people to openly discuss, but additional cultural barriers can make talking about subjects like HIV/AIDS almost impossible to broach.</p>

<p>It's no surprise that the Central Valley is a medically underserved community, where recruiting doctors is a tough task. Many of the doctors working here have attended medical school overseas. In fact, if you crunch the numbers, Kern County comes in fourth among California's 58 counties for having the most foreign-trained doctors.</p>