New Public Health Degree At BC Aims To Coax Students Back To Area In Need
“Public health people want to know the community and know how to get to different target populations,” said Professor Sarah Baron, the leading faculty member running the program at Bakersfield College. “That’s a big tenet of public health. It has to be local.”
The Bakersfield Californian:
BC Rolls Out Public Health Degree To Train 'Change Agents'
Responding to a dearth of homegrown public health specialists and an expanding lack of community literacy in health issues, Bakersfield College launched a Public Health Sciences transfer degree this year with plans to add a certificate program within months. The degree, which was approved this month and is the first of its kind in the southern San Joaquin Valley, provides a pathway for students to transfer from BC to a four-year college and receive a bachelor's degree in a public health field. (Pierce, 2/18)
In other health news from across the state —
Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
Santa Rosa Schools Offer Kids Dental Screenings, Thanks To Pilot Program
Friday’s screenings at Brook Hill were part of a school-based pilot program aimed at improving the dental health of students before they enter school. About 60 kindergarten and pre-K kids were screened during the two-hour dental health assessment effort, which was organized by Sonoma County health and Santa Rosa school officials. It was the second day of screenings in the program, which is made possible through volunteer efforts of dental professionals like [Gina] Fontana as well as a $20,000 grant from Kaiser Permanente. The traveling pilot program, which began last week at Steele Lane Elementary School, will be held at Luther Burbank Elementary School on Feb. 24. (Espinoza, 2/17)
KPCC:
Supervisor Sheila Kuehl Thinks LA County Should Think About Pot Like It Does Alcohol
Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl thinks that marijuana should be treated like alcohol. That's an important thing to know, because she's the one leading the charge on how L.A. County is going to regulate cannabis. Even though pot's legal in California, the state, cities and counties are still deciding how they should treat the drug. L.A. County is in a unique position, given that it's the most populous county in the United States. That makes it the largest county with legal weed. (Margolis, 2/16)
Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
With Eye On Economy, Services, Sonoma County Becoming More Senior-Friendly
Sonoma County officials and advocates for seniors are doubling down on ways to make the county a better place for older residents to live and thrive. The Board of Supervisors has declared 2017 the “Year of the Senior,” marking a concerted effort to improve services for the county’s aging population while also tapping into the economic potential of older residents, a demographic largely overlooked for too long, advocates say. ... Sonoma County has an estimated 125,000 residents over the age of 60, representing some 25 percent of the area’s population, according to Diane Kaljian, an assistant director of the county’s Human Services department. That figure exceeds both the state and national averages, and is expected to grow to about 28 percent by 2025, Kaljian said. (Morris, 2/20)
Capital Public Radio:
During The Oroville Evacuation, Some Senior Citizens Were Not Evacuated
The Oroville evacuation order went out to 180,000 people last Sunday. But some nursing home and hospital patients in Sutter County didn't go anywhere. Sutter County has a list of assisted living facilities and hospitals that require help moving patients to pre-designated facilities during an emergency. When Sutter County issued its evacuation order, Nancy O'Hara, director of Sutter County's Health and Human Services Department, began calling the facilities on that list. Some of those facilities chose not to evacuate even though she encouraged them to do so. (Moffitt, 2/20)