Heat Wave In Sacramento Not Intense Enough To Open Cooling Centers For Homeless, Officials Say
Shelters are trying to do their best, but the sizzling temperatures are putting a strain on everyone seeking relief.
Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento Heat Wave: Homeless People Get Water, But No Cooling Centers
The city offered residents various tips for keeping cool in the coming days, including taking cold showers, limiting exposure to the sun, fleeing to malls or other indoor places or grabbing a bite to eat in “many of our farm-to-fork restaurants.” Those choices are pipe dreams for many who frequent Loaves & Fishes, which provides daytime meals and other services to as many as 800 people every day. (Hubert, 7/26)
In other public health news —
The California Health Report:
Minorities Much Less Likely To Access Mental Health Care, State Data Suggests
White people enrolled in Medi-Cal access mental health treatment at about twice the rate of other ethnic groups, even though they make up fewer than a quarter of plan enrollees, new state data suggests. Between July 2016 and June 2017, approximately 38 out of every 1,000 patients receiving mental health services through Medi-Cal managed care plans were white, a quarterly report released by the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) shows. That’s almost 25 percent more than the number of black Medi-Cal enrollees who sought those services, and more than double the number of Hispanics, Asians and Pacific Islanders who got mental health treatment, the report indicates. (Boyd-Barrett, 7/26)