The concept of "toxic stress" has rapidly gained currency in recent years to explain the damaging effects sustained stress and instability can have on young children. Reporter Daisy Rosario is exploring how such stress impacts underserved communities, and how it might be addressed through services.
Health Equity & Social Justice
By all accounts Charles should have been a success – middle-class upbringing, positive extracurricular activities and a Boy Scout. His future was bright. The opportunities were endless. Instead Charles ended up in the criminal justice system, a long fall for an Eagle Scout. What happened?
In Florida, only one in three children receive adequate preventive care, and the state ranks 50th out of 51 states and D.C. in per-child spending. Reporter Maggie Clark will look into what happens when the nation's third-largest state starts "nickel-and-diming preventive care for children."
When it comes to health outcomes, Johnson and Wyandotte counties in the Kansas City metro area might as well be in different countries. Radio reporter Alex Smith sets out to explore what's behind the health disparities, and what might work best to reduce them. Community engagement will be key.
Air pollution from industrial sources in Michigan’s Wayne County is linked to deaths and life-threatening respiratory diseases, reports Michigan journalist Natasha Dado. She argues there's an urgent need for more watchdog reporting to give voice to pollution's often-overlooked victims.
In Maine, one in three children are overweight, and about half of poor children ages 10 to 17 are obese. Programs such as "Let's Go!" have tried to combat the trends by spreading messages of healthy eating and exercise, but widespread problems persist. Why the impasse?
Mary Annette Pember wrote this article, originally published by Indian Country Today Media Network, as a 2014 National Health Journalism Fellow, with support from The Dennis A. Hunt Fund for Health Journalism. Other stories in her project series can be found here:...
Soumya Karlamangla covers health for the local politics and government section of the Los Angeles Times. Karlamangla reported on the remaining uninsured as a California Health Journalism Fellow at USC's Annenberg School of Journalism.
In recent years, Fresno County has seen an alarming number of new HIV and AIDS cases. Among the concerns: More young people are becoming infected, programs that had been helping patients for decades have had their budgets slashed, and many people aren't receiving treatment.
While states such as Texas and Florida have repeatedly rejected efforts to expand Medicaid in the first place, California is on the verge of expanding public health coverage to include undocumented children. But will they be able to find access to care in an already crowded Medicaid system?