2015 California Health Journalism Fellowship
Project Summaries
Diana Aguilera of Valley Public Radio in Fresno broadcast a three-part series on the disproportionate incidence of HIV and other STDs among Latinos in the Central Valley. Her first piece documented the recent increase in new HIV cases in Fresno County and their concentration among Latino teens and young adults, most of them gay. Her second piece looked at a possible connection between the Fresno Unified School District’s abandonment of sex ed classes in 2011 and a recent rise in STD rates. In her final piece, she explored the increase in STDs in rural parts of the county, where lack of access to health care, six-day workweeks and tough living conditions make it hard for many farmworkers to visit a doctor. in her “Lessons from the Field,” Aguilera provided tips about how to approach subjects when the topic of a story -- sexually transmitted diseases -- is particularly sensitive.
In Post-Ebola America, a three-part series for the Huffington Post, Anna Almendrala, a staff health reporter, looked at how the 2014 ebola epidemic in Africa has changed the United States’ public health system. In her “Lessons from the Field,” she wrote about the difficulty of drawing long-term lessons so soon after the outbreak.
Avishay Artsy, a reporter and producer for KCRW in Los Angeles, reported a three-part series on the reasons behind the disproportionate impact of colon cancer on African American men. His first piece explored the reasons behind a fear of colonoscopies, a barrier to early detection. Part Two looked at other reasons for the high rate, including lifestyle factors, a predisposition to the development of precancerous polyps in a harder-to-probe section of the colon and barriers to accessing health care. The third piece reported on new efforts to increase early detection and treatment, including the enlistment of ministers to spread the word about the importance of colonoscopies, which the Affordable Care Act now requires health insurers to provide at no charge to their clients. California Report, which has a statewide reach, also recently aired a segment based on that reporting. In his “Lessons from the Field,” Artsy provided tips on how to find patients to put faces on health disparities.
Claudia Boyd-Barrett, a freelance reporter on assignment for the Ventura Star, produced a multimedia project on the challenges of providing health care and social services to the mentally ill homeless population in Ventura County. In her “Lessons from the Field,” she wrote about how her understanding of mental illness had changed as a result of her interviews with people living with psychosis and provided helpful tips to reporters undertaking similar projects.
Megan Burks, a reporter for KPBS in San Diego, explored the challenges of providing mental health and addiction treatment in Imperial County, a seriously under-resourced county, and the promise of a MediCal pilot project that uses cognitive behavior therapy in group settings. In her “Lessons from the Field,” she wrote about how she had to overcome her own misconceptions to find the real story.
Andrea Castillo of the Fresno Bee reported on the health effects of California’s devastating drought, particularly in well-dependent communities in the Central Valley, where many wells have dried up. In her first story, “Drought disaster in East Porterville turns to budding health crisis,” Castillo chronicled the effects on health of breathing increasingly dusty air, a problem for the many residents who suffer from respiratory ailments. In her second story, “Water and hope run dry for East Porterville woman caught in drought,” Andrea explored the effects of the drought on the health of a single mother of five who has two chronic conditions and no running water in her home. Her final story explored the impact of the drought on the mental health of Porterville residents. In her “Lessons from the Field,” she wrote about how a research gap made it difficult to get beyond anecdotes about the health effects of the drought.
Jenna Chandler, a reporter for the Orange County Register, produced a data-rich analysis of infection rates at hospitals in Orange County. Her first story focused on Mission Hospital Regional Center, which federal inspection reports indicate failed to follow protocols aimed at preventing dangerous infections. Her second story reviewed federal inspection reports for five of Orange County’s six biggest hospitals. Her final story reported on the difficulty patients have in determining whether a hospital in which they’re going to have surgery has a good track record for safety. In her “Lessons from the Field,” Chandler told reporters where to go to find hospital inspection reports.
Emily Jo Cureton’s project on domestic violence in Del Norte County began running in the Triplicate on February 5. Cureton found that the rate of domestic violence-related calls to police in the county was among the highest in the state--eight times higher than the statewide average. In her second piece, Cureton wrote about the obstacles a Yurok woman encountered in her attempts to protect herself from an abusive partner, and her tragic demise. “The Aftermath,” a multi-part radio version of her project ran on Jefferson Public Radio in southern Oregon, whose coverage area includes northern California.
Leila Day, a reporter for KALW, reported a three-part radio and Web series exploring the stigma in the African American community around mental health problems, as well as whether training more African Americans as therapists might make African Americans more willing to seek treatment. In a third piece, Day interviewed an African American psychiatrist about the reasons behind African American’s high rate of depression and low rate of therapy. In her “Lessons from the Field,” she wrote about how her community engagement efforts around her project helped her build a larger audience. Day persuaded KPOO, a station with a predominantly African American audience, to invite her and two of the sources for her series to engage in an hour-long program on mental health resources in the Bay Area for African Americans.
Jenna Flannigan, a reporter for HealthLine Networks, took an in-depth look at how safety net hospitals are being impacted by penalties for poor performance on certain quality measures. Her multi-part project focused on how ACA-mandated penalties are disproportionately impacting hospitals that are considered both safety net and major teaching hospitals. The series also looked at the common causes of penalty-provoking readmissions, how “pay for performance” policies are being used to improve care and how penalties are being used to reduce hospital-caused infections. In her “Lesson from the Field,” Flannigan provided tips on how to analyze Medicare data.
Jenny Gold, a Bay Area-based correspondent for Kaiser Health News, produced a two-part series for NPR’s “All Things Considered” sow and Kaiser Health News’ other media partners on the complex ethical issues involved in the treatment of "micro preemies.” Her first story told the story of a premature infant with severe cognitive and physical disabilities whose care cost $11 million during the eight months he lived. Her second story described a trend in children’s hospitals to enlist parents as decisionmakers when medical intervention can mean prolonging suffering.
Angela Hart, a reporter for the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, produced “Stuck in Squalor,” an investigation into substandard housing in Sonoma County and its impact on residents’ health. Hart’s reporting identified 253 rental properties in the county with unresolved complaints about their failure to meet health and safety standards.
Ana Ibarra, the health reporter for the Merced Sun-Star, produced a three-part multimedia series on the toll that violence is taking on residents of Merced County, which has experienced a record number of homicides in the last two years. Ibarra met with residents of the area’s most violence-plagued communities to gather personal stories for the project. In her “Lessons from the Field,” Ibarra provided tips about how to interview people about sensitive subjects.
Neda Iranpour, an anchor and reporter for San Diego 6, produced a three-part series, "Mind Your Health," on the growth of interest in yoga and mindfulness training. Part One: Military and Mindfulness, examined how the Navy is promoting yoga as an antidote to stress. In Part Two: Mindful Medicine, Neda looked at how medical professionals use mindfulness to manage their own stress. In Part Three: Workplace Wellness, Iranpour profiled a socially conscious soapmaking company that offers free wellness services to its employees. In her “Lessons from the Field,” she wrote about the importance of looking beyond obvious sources, such as practitioners, to find sources who could lend more credibility to a subject that some regard as fringe.
Soumya Karlamangla, a staff reporter for the Los Angeles Times, was one of the first Fellows out of the gate with an article about how health care differs for the undocumented depending upon which California county in which they live. Her second story examined the reasons why Sacramento County wants to restore access to its free health clinics to undocumented residents. Her third and final story, reported from San Francisco, looked at how Obamacare is unexpectedly threatening the financial stability of Healthy San Francisco, the city’s low-cost health insurance program for the poor. In her “Lesson from the Field,” she wrote about the challenge of staying ahead of her story, given the overnight changes in California’s health care approaches to undocumented immigrants.
Parimal Rohit, a reporter for IndiaWest, reported a two-part series on the disproportionate impact of diabetes on Americans of Indian origin. The first piece examined the possible reasons for the high rate, including a genetic predisposition, the cuisine and lifestyle. A second piece will focus on practical tips for managing diabetes. In his “Lessons from the Field,” Rohit wrote about the importance of writing about a disease in ways a layperson can understand.
In “Fragments of Care,” Alayna Shulman, a health reporter for the Redding Searchlight, looked into what the shortage of mental health facilities in northern California means for people with acute mental illnesses. In her first story, she documented the pressures on the mental health clinics scattered around largely rural Shasta County, which federal data show are among the most understaffed in California. A sidebar and accompanying video recounted the experiences of two residents with mental illnesses who struggle to get the care they need. Subsequent stories explored life on the streets for the mentally ill, civic leaders’ positions on what more the county should be doing and, how a Texas city with similar barriers to care found a solution. For her “Lessons from the Field” for Center for Health Journalism Digital, Shulman provided tips about where to find data documenting the prevalence of mental illness in a jurisdiction and how to approach people suffering from mental illness with sensitivity.
Julio Vaqueiro, an anchor and reporter for Telemundo in Los Angeles, produced a three-part series on how providers in Ventura County are reaching out to provide health care to the largely Mixteco strawberry-picking workforce in the county, as well as barriers to providing care. In his “Lesson from the Field,” he wrote about the importance of establishing trust with the subjects of his stories, who fear deportation.
Danielle Venton, a reporter for KRCB public radio in Sonoma County, explored the reasons behind the rising rate for cesarean sections around the state and Marin General Hospital’s efforts to reverse the trend. A second story examined efforts at hospitals around the state to reduce their cesarean section rates.
Thy Vo, a reporter for The Voice of OC, focused on the reticence among Vietnamese immigrants to discuss sex or embrace members of their community who are LGBT. In her first piece, she wrote about the struggle for LGBT Vietnamese Americans to find acceptance from their parents and the larger ethnic Vietnamese community. A second piece described how trauma and cultural taboos made it difficult for many Vietnamese families to provide their children with education about sex.