Health
“Dog park” sort of misses the mark when describing the Point Isabel Regional Shoreline. This is no fenced off stretch of dirt. Point Isabel is the largest public off-leash dog park in the country with roughly half a million dog visits each year.
Funding Adult Day Health Care, which supports the elderly and those with special needs, was cut from the state’s budget this summer, and unless a lawsuit challenging the cuts is successful, the program will disappear at the end of this year.
What would happen if West Contra Costa County’s largest hospital was forced to shut its doors or seriously downgrade its emergency room operations? It would be very bad, according to a study released last week by the county health department’s Emergency Medical Services agency. Yet hospital officials say a permanent closure of Doctor’s Medical Center San Pablo, whose largely low-income and elderly patient population makes it difficult to run profitably, is looming unless they are able to secure state or other funding soon.
A group of women from local churches got together Saturday to cook a meal and mark the end of 12 weeks of classes called A Taste of Health that focused on exercise and nutrition. The group met every Saturday for the last few months—skipping a few here and there for holidays—to exercise, cook and learn together.
The 18th Annual Iron Triangle Community Picnic is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Saturday, and organizers hope that it continues a trend that in recent years has seen growing crowds at the picnic and renewed faith in community.
This summer marks thirty years since the first AIDS diagnosis. Since then, advancements in anti-retroviral drugs used to treat the disease and better disease management practices have rolled out every few years. But until 2004, the way that health providers tested for HIV, the infection that causes AIDS, remained the same. Now, clinics can deliver results instantly, and that has big implications.
Seventeen teenagers from across Richmond listened to a panel of health care professionals Wednesday at the as they all shared stories about working in the medical profession and what schooling it took to get there.
Activists, led by Barbara Becnel, gathered in Richmond to learn how to successfully advocate for the abolition of capital punishment. California leads the nation in awarding the death penalty, and Contra Costa County’s court system is among the state’s frequent users of the death sentence.
Summers are meant for swimming holes, drive-in movie theaters and cross-country road trips. Going to a hospital usually doesn’t make a summer to-do list, especially when the visit entails delicate surgeries with sharp, steely knives. But for three low-income, uninsured Contra Costa County residents, surgery was a dream come true.