Why place matters_jeanc_october2011

Does place matter? Connecting community to your (teen) health

Beatrice MotamediAdviser, The Urban School of San FranciscoJournalism Education Association/Northern California2011 State ConventionOctober 2011

Thursday, October 13, 11

background and (brief!) bio

• reporter, writer, editor; 12 years with WebMD, Health, Parenting, Hippocrates, Time Inc. Health

• became a high school teacher in 2004

• journalism adviser at The Urban School of San Francisco; co-direct Newsroom by the Bay @ Stanford

• teach journalism part-time, practice journalism part-time

• California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowship, 2011/Oakland Tribune


Growing up in Oakland: the long arm of childhood

Three-part series published in the Oakland Tribune, May 31, June 1 and June 2, 2011, by Beatrice Motamedi. A project for The California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships, a program of the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California. Photo of Torrance Hampton, 19, of East Oakland, by Jane Tyska/Oakland Tribune.


http://www.reportingonhealth.org/fellowships/projects/long-arm-childhood-how-chronic-stress-impacts-oakland-teens-body-and-mind




The series: the goals

• Stay in place — focus on Castlemont campus (3 schools)

• Spend time — one full year, one full cycle of change, growth

• Connect the dots — from individual stories to the big picture. How does trauma weather teens?

Alizhey Black,15, student at East Oakland School of the Arts. Photo by Esmerelda Argueta


An edition of the

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BAY AREA NEWS APPS

INTRODUCING

By Lisa Vorderbrueggenlvorderbrueggen@

bayareanewsgroup.com

East Bay jails have beds but nocash to take on the hundreds of in-mates the state is expected to divert to counties as California tries to meet court-ordered prison popula-tion reductions.

“Counties have been promised

money from the state before and have not always received the money as promised,” said Alameda CountySheriff Greg Ahern. “We are looking for full funding and constitutionalguarantees of continued funding.”

Sheriffs are “literally meeting every week with (Gov. Jerry Brown) and his staff to make sure there is going to be adequate funding to

absorb these prisoners into the lo-cal jails,” said Contra Costa County Sheriff David Livingston.

Last week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision launched Ahern and Liv-ingston, who oversee a combined6,700 jail beds, into the front line of accelerated talks over how Califor-nia will resolve its pernicious prisonovercrowding problem.

The justices ruled that the state’s glutted prisons constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

Brown this year introduced

what he called “realignment,” shift-ing responsibility from the state to counties starting July 1 to jail and monitor low-level, nonviolent felons to save the state money and to ease prison overpopulation.

Counties could also receive some offenders in state custody. The state must shed 33,000 inmates over the next two years in order to meet the court ruling.

The Legislature adopted realign-ment as part of the state budget. But without highly disputed exten-

sions of the vehicle license fee and sales tax, there will be no money toimplement it.

Without a constitutional guar-antee of funding, the next Legisla-ture faced with defi cits could raid the realignment account and leave counties paying for hundreds or thousands of inmates.

That’s the sticking point for sher-iffs such as Livingston and Ahern.

Without money, they cannot

Counties brace for inmate influxEAST BAY SHERIFFS say jails have the space to takein state prisoners, but they don’t have the money

By Paul [email protected]

ANTIOCH — Shirley Mar-chetti chatted with a probationofficer in the courtyard of the REACH Project center one after-noon when she received a long-awaited gift.

An 18-year-old Brentwoodman handed her a camoufl age-patterned T-shirt that read “Be All That You Can Be: Be Drug Free.”

“I think this is pretty much the greatest gift ever,” Marchetti, 76, told him, holding up the shirt to see whether it would fit.

Marchetti has worked to coun-sel troubled teens in East Contra Costa County since her oldest son was offered drugs while a student at Antioch Junior High School in 1968.

REACH Project Inc., co-founded by Marchetti and then-Antioch police Sgt. Leon LeRoy

Her reachstretches into livesof youthsAntioch woman has been using tough loveto fight drugs for morethan four decades

HOMETOWN HERO

President Barack Obama greets residents of Joplin, Mo., during a visit Sunday to the tornado-ravaged com-munity. “I promise you your country will be there with you every single step of the way,” he said as he pledged federal aid to all storm-bat-tered parts of the nation.

Pledge to helpMissouri town

IN MORNING REPORT

OVERFLOWING PRISONS

First of three partsBy Beatrice Motamedi

Correspondent

It was at the funeral of theboy he wanted to graduate withthat Torrance Hampton fi nallycracked.

Standing near the altar, hethought hard about what tosay. Both seniors, Torrance and Marquis Woolfolk had bonded

instantly in September, sharinglaughs and stories and hopes.Both had survived wild times and poor choices.

Now both were determined to graduate.

For three months, they stayed after school, working hard to make up the classes they’d missed.

In fact, the Friday before Thanksgiving, Torrance and Marquis had traded high-fi ves after turning in assignments that earned them three credits each

toward graduation.“Man,” Marquis had said, “I

think we’re going make it.”Two days later, he was one of

four boys shot as they stood on the porch of an East Oakland house. The other two were treated at Highland Hospital. Marquis died in the ambulance.

OLDER THAN THEIR YEARS

GROWING UP IN OAKLAND

TUESDAYPart Two: Weatheringadolescence — stressorsthat jeopardize teen health.

Constant threat of violence makes teensRAY CHAVEZ/STAFF

Torrance Hampton, 19, lost his friend Marquis Woolfolk to violence when Marquis was shot and killed in November in East Oakland.

“I was happy to make 19 (yearsold). ... Young black men likeme need some role models …because we don’t ever know if we’re going to make it throughto 20.”

— Torrance Hampton, Oakland resident

See HERO, Page 13

JOE RAEDLE/BLOOMBERG

See INFLUX, Page 13

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INDEXAsk Amy ..................D10Classified ............AA8-9Comics .................... D11

Crossword ................ D9Lottery .................... AA2Movies ...................... D2Obituaries ................ D4

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A NEWSPAPERCopyright ©2011 Bay Area News Group-East Bay

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LOCAL NEWS • PAGE A3

New Jonestownmemorial plaquesformally unveiled

Youth homicides Teenagers, ages 13 to 18, killed in Oakland since 2001

2001 20062002 2003 2004 2005 2007 2008 2009 2010

27

1216 15 16

106

12116

Source: Oakland Unified School District BAYAREANEWS GROUP

75 cents plus taxVolume 137, No. 99

501

Serving Oakland for 137 yearsMonday I May 30, 2011 oaklandtribune.com

Day 1: the science of teen stress

• The link between early exposure to stress and adult health = the long arm of childhood

• “Young black men like me need role models, someone to get me through the next 5 years, because we don’t ever know if we’re going to make it to 20.”

• “I would estimate that 100% of our students are impacted by violence in some way or form .... There’s no way you can not be, in our community.”


An edition of the


WEATHERCloudyH: 60sL: 50sPAGE AA8

INDEXAsk Amy ................... C8Classified ............... AA4Comics ..................... C9

Crossword ................ C7Gary Bogue .............. A2Lottery .................... AA2Movies ...................... C3

Obituaries ................ C4Opinion ..................... A8People ...................... A2Television ................C10


BAY AREA NEWS APPS

INTRODUCING MORNING REPORT

Hospitals huntfor substitutes as drug shortages riseto record levels

BART SH0OTING

By Paul T. [email protected]

OAKLAND — A year after fac-ing a lifetime in prison for killing an unarmed BART passenger, former transit police Offi cer Jo-hannes Mehserle will be released from jail in a cou-ple of weeks.

With creditsfor time served and the leniency of a Los Angeles County judge,Mehserle will be set free after serv-ing 11 months of a two-year sentence issued after the 29-year-old was found guiltyof involuntary manslaughter in the killing of Hayward resident Oscar Grant III.

Mehserle’s release from Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail, most likely in the middle

Mehserlewill bereleasedin weeksFamily of slain man ‘totally let down’ by punishment given to former transit officer


Second of three partsBy Beatrice Motamedi

Correspondent

It’s a Monday morning, and Christina Cruz is al-ready tired.

“I’m glad you’re here, be-cause I need to talk aboutthis,” the 17-year-old tells a visitor. “I stayed up all night talking to my mom.”

Christina’s mother is anx-ious about Christina and her twin, Catherine. Seniors at the Castlemont Business and Infor-mation Technology School, both have failed the math portion of the California High School ExitExam, or CAHSEE. Until theypass, the graduation party thattheir big Samoan family wantsto throw for them is on hold.

To graduate, seniors must

pass the exit exam, earn the required number of creditsand present a senior research project. An outgoing girl with a big smile, Christina passed the English portion of the exam but missed math by 19 points.

“If it’s not the CAHSEE, it’s the credits. If it’s not the credits, it’s the senior project,” Christina says. “(My mother) thinks that if I don’t graduate, I’m going to give up, just like that. But I’m not.”

Interviews with and writ-ings by nearly 100 students at the Castlemont Campus of Small Schools reveal three ma-jor stressors jeopardize their health: academic anxiety, lack of healthy food and an environmentthat limits their freedom and imprisons them indoors. Even

Hazards to their healthAcademic, nutritional, environmental stress combines, creating health problems that can become hereditary

WEDNESDAY • PART THREESurviving and thriving: What works to make teens more resilient.

“The Castle looks very peaceful and healthy. I would never feelunsafe or at risk in the Castle. I wish it still was a castle.”

JANE TYSKA/STAFF

With a tough college-prep curriculum, Castlemont High School once was the neighborhood jewel. But like its East Oakland neighborhood, which was hit especially hard by the crack epidemic of the 1980s, the school has fallen on hard times.

DEEBA YAVROM/STAFF

Gese Siaki, center, helps adjust the headband of Catherine Cruz before going on stage for a Polynesian dance performance May 19 at Castlemont High School.

Mehserle

By Mike [email protected]

Customers of the East Bay’slargest water utility are likely to see their bills rise more than antici-pated this summer and again next year as the utility tries to combatdeclining revenues and rising heath

care, pension and borrowing costs.The East Bay Municipal Utility

District may adopt 6 percent rate increase for this year and next — or possibly lower rate increases — when its board of directors meets June 14.

If approved, the district that

serves 1.4 million East Bay resi-dents would be on track by 2013 to increase rates by one-third over what they were two years ago. The first rate increases would go into ef-fect July 1.

Some critics are not convinced that the district has done every-thing possible to keep rates down.

After all, other governmentagencies that rely on taxes instead of fees, which are much easier to

raise, have been forced to more drastic measures.

“It seems too easy for them to simply pass it on to customers,” said Mary Horton, a former mayor of Pi-nole who has been voicing questionsabout the plan. “I’m not necessarilyagainst the increase, but I think itshould be delayed until they maketheir case.”

Two years ago, the district an-ticipated that it would need to raise

rates by 5 percent this year and next, but the board of directors de-cided to pursue higher rates out of concern that service levels woulddecline and the district’s credit rat-ing might take a hit, which could in-crease borrowing costs.

In order to keep rate increases at 5 percent, the district would have had to hold 50 jobs open as work-

EBMUD’S PROPOSAL calls for a 6 percent increasein water charges this year — and another for 2012

Anger greets plan to raise ratesPUBLIC UTILITIES

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SPORTS: NBA FINALS

LeBRON IN LIMELIGHT

IN MORNING REPORT

President Barack Obama introduces Army Gen. Martin Dempsey during a news con-ference Monday at the White House. In nominating Dempsey to lead the Joint Chiefs of Staff,Obama lauded him as “one ofour nation’s most respected and combat-tested generals.”

Obama taps new leader for Joint Chiefs

J. DAVID AKE/ASSOCIATED PRESS

See WATER, Page 9

See MEHSERLE, Page 9

See HEALTH, Page 9


USPS 07453841


501

Serving Oakland for 137 yearsTuesday I May 31, 2011 oaklandtribune.com

Day 2: typical teen stressors

• The Cruz sisters and the Tongan dance class; the graduation trifecta

• Mayo, shreds of lettuce and pickles — four liquor stores bracket campus, but soup machine = broken for 2 years

• "I’m not really a good person to ask about the neighborhood, because I don’t really go outside of my house once I get home .... We hear a lot of shooting all the time and everyone in my community is divided.”


An edition of the


To see a slide show of photos from Tuesday’s verdict, go to InsideBayArea.com.

WEATHERShowersHighs: 60sLows: 50sPAGE AA6

INDEXAsk Amy ................... D4Classified ................. C5Comics ..................... D5

Crossword ................ C7Gary Bogue .............. A2Lottery .................... AA2Movies ...................... D2

Obituaries ................ C3Opinion ....................A14Scores ...................... B5Television ................. D6


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BAY AREA NEWS APPS

INTRODUCING INSIDE • PAGE A4

Scientists pointto possible linkbetween cancer,cellphone use


Last of three partsBy Beatrice Motamedi

Correspondent

It’s third period at Castlemont Business and Information Tech-nology School in East Oakland. A visitor begins a discussion about poverty, bad food and crime. Tough times? Tough streets?These high school students aren’t stressing.

In this class, the vibe is to thrive: At a school where the dropout rate

is one in two, most are ready to gradu-ate. Gary WilliamsJr., senior classpresident, has anathletic scholarshipto the University ofSan Francisco.

“Trying to getgood grades, play basketball and get

ready for college can be reallystressful,” he says. “I handle my stress by working out or going toplay basketball.”

It’s a big contrast to fi rst pe-riod, where students are tired andworried.

“When I am expected to do things, I get stressed,” admits se-nior Alejandra Munoz.

Moses Nervis, a self-described“budding cartoonist,” has trou-ble handling multiple demands: “(S)chool, my cartoons and some program my Mom got me in — it’stoo much.”

Tevita Lanivia can’t wait to move to Utah, where his sisters live.

“You would think that youwould be safe around (Oakland)but death is around the side,” he

To thrive, resiliency is keySurviving adversityhelps to make teensstronger, and thoseskills can be taught

‘Pop pop pop there go another young man shot …Follow your heart because this world is falling apart …

Life in Oakland is a living hell.’

By Paul T. [email protected]

OAKLAND — Asmerom Gebre-selassie and his brother Tewodros will spend the rest of their lives inprison after a jury decided Tuesdayboth successfully planned and car-ried out the killings of their sister-in-law, her mother and her brother on Thanksgiving Day 2006.

After deliberating for about seven days, the jury of 10 women andtwo men found the Gebreselassie brothers guilty of all 14 charges filed

against them, including killing three people, kidnapping a 2-year-oldnephew and attempting to kill one other person.

The jury also found that both were guilty of two special circumstancecrimes: killing multiple people and killing during the course of a kidnap-ping. As a result, the Gebreselassie brothers will be sentenced in August to life in prison without the possibil-ity of parole.

“For what they did, they deserve this,” said Merhawi Mehari, who

witnessed the Gebreselassie broth-ers gun down his sister, mother and brother during a Thanksgiving Day dinner. “I’m happy but I also have loss. It’s painful, I will never get my family back.”

Asmerom Gebreselassie, 47, and his brother Tewodros, 43, were ac-cused of killing their sister-in-law, Winta Mehari, 28, her mother,Regbe Bahrengasi, 50, and her brother, Yonas Mehari, 17, in what a

Brothers found guilty of murderPair will spend rest of their lives in prisonfor shooting three in Oakland apartment

GEBRESELASSIE SLAYING TRIAL

JANE TYSKA/STAFF

Kevnisha Harris, 15, a freshman at the Castlemont Campus of Small Schools, shows herpoems in East Oakland. The school, which is divided into several smaller schools, offersservices to help students deal with the stress of living in an urban environment.

By Peter [email protected]

ALAMEDA — City offi cialsare investigating why police and firefighters remained on a beach and watched as a 52-year-old man stood in the surf and apparently killed himself on Memorial Day.

The officers and fi refi ghters — who later said they are not trained in land-water rescue — remained on the beach as a passer-by waded into the water and pulled the man’s body to shore after he drowned.

“We are absolutely going to do an investigation,” Mayor MarieGilmore said. “And we are plan-ning to do it in as transparent a way as possible.”

Raymond Zack paced back and forth along the shore for several minutes before he waded into the waves about 11:30 a.m. on a stretch of Robert Crown Memo-rial State Beach along Shoreline Drive near Willow Street in Al-ameda, witnesses said.

For nearly an hour, Zack stood in the neck-deep water — some-times raising his arms above the surface — before he eventually

City askswhy man allowed to drownAlameda firefighters,police stood on beach as man killed himself

LAURA A. ODA/STAFF

Yosef Mehari, brother and son of the victims, receives a hugTuesday after brothers Asmerom and Tewodros Gebreselassiewere found guilty of killing three people in 2006 in Oakland. TheGebreselassies will spend their lives in prison without parole.

BEACH DEATH

ONLINETo read the otherparts of the“Growing UpIn Oakland”series, go toInsideBay-Area.com.

ONLINE

LOCAL NEWS • PAGE A3

The snowpack in the Sierrais two to three times its normaldepth, thanks to a wet winterand cool spring. But hot summerweather could turn a gradualthaw into flooding.

Snow meltcould spell trouble

See VERDICT, Page 15

See DROWNING, Page 15

See SOLUTIONS, Page 15

— Poem by Kevnisha Harris, 15, a freshman at the Castlemont Campus of Small Schools


501

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BUSINESSALIBABA.COMOPENS DOORSFOR SMALL FIRMS

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FOOD & WINEDay 3: resilience.

What works?

• “The middle-class kids have already learned that if you fail, the world is not at an end .... Minority poor kids really have some catching up to do." (Len Syme)

• role models and mentors; outside support (YU, clinic)

• control and agency, e.g., Ali’s “dream” story; Enrique and “The Boost” and “Slum Kids Lifestyle”


Doing your own story ... three essential questions

• Does a person’s health depend on access to healthcare, or lifestyle choices? What’s more important: doctors, or diet?

• Which is more important: the choices you make, or the physical and social environment in which you live? Diet, or homicide rate?

• Do you have social capital in your community? What do teens need, and does your community give it to you/them? How can you tell?


Which of these places is healthier?


Castlemont, then: East Oakland High School, 1927 Photo in Oakland Tribune archives; also online at the Oakland Public

Library at http://www.oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt009nc73h/?layout=metadata&brand=oac4


http://www.oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt009nc73h/?layout=metadata&brand=oac4




• no government-sponsored health care; no welfare or food stamps

• no school nurses, no health classes, no peer ed

• leading causes of death: typhus, malaria, smallpox, measles

• U.S. life expectancy in 1927 was 62.0 years (white) and 48.2 years (black)

Sources: “Table 21. Estimated life expectancy at birth in years, by race and sex: Death-registration states, 1900–1928, and United States, 1929–2007,” U.S. Life Tables at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr59/nvsr59_09.pdf; National Center for Health Statistics, at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/nvsr.htm,

and “Causes of Death,” Vital Statistics of the U.S., Centers for Disease Control, at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsushistorical/mortrates_1910-1920.pdf


http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr59/nvsr59_09.pdf

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr59/nvsr59_09.pdf

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/nvsr.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/nvsr.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsushistorical/mortrates_1910-1920.pdf%20%0Dhttp://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsushistorical/mortrates_1910-1920.pdf%20%0D

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsushistorical/mortrates_1910-1920.pdf%20%0Dhttp://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsushistorical/mortrates_1910-1920.pdf%20%0D

And now: Castlemont campus of small schools, 2011 Photo by Jane Tyska/

Oakland Tribune


“Killside” Street, one block west of Castlemont

photo by Beatrice Motamedi


photo by Jane Tyska/Oakland TribuneMain entrance, Castlemont Business and

Information Technology School


Olive Street, May 26, 2011

Photo by Jane Tyska/Oakland Tribune


• food stamps (1932); Medicare, Medicaid (1965); Obamacare (cross fingers)

• Castlemont health clinic — most heavily used school clinic, 2 physicians + 6 mental health counselors, nearly 6,000 visits in 2007-2008 (latest available)

• leading causes of death: homicide, unintentional injury, suicide

• life expectancy as of 2006-2008 (latest available) was 81.4 years; the difference between Asian American females and African American males = 20 years

Sources: Interview with Castlemont Clinic Director Su Park, April 2010; “Health of Alameda County Cities and Places,” Alameda County Department of Public Health, 2010


http://www.acphd.org/data-reports/reports-by-topic/city,-county,-and-region-reports.aspx


Race, ethnicity, environment = lifespan

Source: “Life and Death from Unnatural Causes: Health and Social Inequity in Alameda County,” Alameda County Public Health Department, April 2008, at http://www.barhii.org/press/download/

unnatural_causes_report.pdf


http://www.barhii.org/press/download/unnatural_causes_report.pdfhttp://livepage.apple.com/

http://www.barhii.org/press/download/unnatural_causes_report.pdfhttp://livepage.apple.com/

When we think about health, we usually think about health care and access to care and the quality of care. But what research clearly shows is that health is embedded in the larger conditions in which we live and work. So, the quality of housing and the quality of neighborhood have dramatic effects on health. DAVID WILLIAMS, sociologist, Harvard School of Public Health

A new way of looking at public health


Assessing health: four leading (teen) indicators

• The teen disease burden: asthma, Type 2 diabetes, obesity

• % of LBW (low-birthweight) births

• Quality of built environment: schools, parks, libraries, transportation, housing

• Hope?


Why asthma?

• “canary in the coal mine” — high asthma rates correlate with poor environmental health, psychological stress, even divorce

• sharp racial/ethnic disparities

• major contributor to low attendance, poor school performance

• example of inflammatory and immune system disease


Asthma in Alameda County

Source: “Health of Alameda County Cities and Places,” Alameda County Department of Public Health, 2010




Asthma in California, all counties: OSHPD


http://www.oshpd.ca.gov

http://www.oshpd.ca.gov

Pediatric quality indicators


Why low birthweight babies?

• another “canary”: “At the population level, the proportion of babies with a low birth weight is an indicator of a multifaceted public-health problem that includes long-term maternal malnutrition, ill health, hard work and poor health care in pregnancy. On an individual basis, low birth weight is an important predictor of newborn health and survival.” —World Health Organization

• link in utero to mental illness and learning disabilities: Dutch famine of 1944 and the Chinese famine of 1959

• teen moms have a higher LBW rate than older moms



Low birthweight babies, California, all counties


http://www.cdph.ca.gov/data/statistics/Pages/CountyBirthStatisticalDataTables.aspx

http://www.cdph.ca.gov/data/statistics/Pages/CountyBirthStatisticalDataTables.aspx

LBW - teen moms, CA, all counties


Assessing the built environment

“It encompasses all buildings, spaces and products that are created, or modified, by people. It includes homes, schools, workplaces, parks/recreation areas, greenways, business areas and transportation systems. It extends overhead in the form of electric transmission lines, underground in the form of waste disposal sites and subway trains, and across the country in the form of highways. It includes land-use planning and policies that impact our communities in urban, rural and suburban areas.”

“Obesity and the Built Environment,” National Institutes of Health, 2004 request for proposals, http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-!les/rfa-

es-04-003.html


http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/rfa-es-04-003.html




Census: the American Community Survey


http://www.census.gov/acs/www/about_the_survey/american_community_survey/

http://www.census.gov/acs/www/about_the_survey/american_community_survey/

Sample news release


http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/american_community_survey_acs/cb11-158.html

http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/american_community_survey_acs/cb11-158.html

city-data.com


http://www.city-data.com


three troubling stats for teens

• Dropout rates = 78.2% at Leadership Preparatory High School, 55.9% at Castlemont Business and Information Technology School and 43.2% at the East Oakland School of the Arts.

• An area of nearly 35 square miles with 121,000 residents, 63,000 in the so-called "Castlemont Corridor," and 21,000 of them teenagers, East Oakland does not have a full-service supermarket.

• The stat kids suggested I use


zipskinny.com (try the widget!)


http://zipskinny.com/index.php?zip=94603

http://zipskinny.com/index.php?zip=94603

From Place Matters: neighborhood report cards


http://www.unnaturalcauses.org/for_educators.php

http://www.unnaturalcauses.org/for_educators.php

Hope, finally

• CDC/leading causes of death for adolescents (follow the greens)

• high school diploma correlates to lower asthma risk, lower diabetes rates, higher life expectancy (in AlaCo, h.s. grad is < 70% = 5-year drop in life expectancy)

• "Our view is that if these children had no hope for the future, what difference would it make if they smoked or used drugs or missed school? We decided to work on hope, to help these children see that they had a future." —Len Syme, professor emeritus, UC Berkeley School of Public Health


http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/leadingcauses.html

http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/leadingcauses.html

http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/pdf/Death_by_Age_2007-a.pdf

http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/pdf/Death_by_Age_2007-a.pdf

“Causes of Death,” Mortality Statistics, 1919, Bureau of the Census

Leading causes of death, U.S. 1919


Centers for Disease Control: causes of death by age


Measuring hope: three suggestions

• get graduation/dropout rates & correlate to life expectancy

• devise your own “broken window” index of your environment, e.g., teen-to-park ratio, teen-to-liquor stores ratio, teen-to-bus stop ratio

• map and compare built environments (number of fast-food restaurants, number of exercise fields or parks, number of blighted areas, number of museums and libraries, etc.)


Don’t forget your local public health department

For a list of county health departments,

click here


http://www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/immunize/Pages/CaliforniaLocalHealthDepartments.aspx

http://www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/immunize/Pages/CaliforniaLocalHealthDepartments.aspx

what the AlaCo data showed

• Homicide, unintentional injury and suicide are leading causes/death for AlaCo teens; homicide/injury = 2/3 of all teen deaths

• Only 1 in 5 AlaCo teens has the recommended daily serving of fruits/veggies, compared with 1 in 2 adults; children aged 2-11 are “over twice as likely” to consume the fruits/veggies they need. AlaCo has the fourth-highest % of kids statewide who are overweight (29.1%)

• AlaCo adults who don’t complete high school are twice as likely to have diabetes than those with a h.s. diploma or higher


http://www.whhs.com/static/adminuploads/documents/cna_2010_4cd44f575cc89.pdf


Where we went today

• B’s stories on reportingonhealth.org

• “Unnatural Causes”

• “The Health of Alameda County Cities and Places”

• Office of Statewide Health Planning & Development (OSHPD)

• California Department of Public Health

• Bureau of the Census/American Community Survey

• city-data.com

• zipskinny.com

• Centers for Disease Control

• National Center for Health Statistics




http://www.unnaturalcauses.org/

http://www.unnaturalcauses.org/





http://www.oshpd.ca.gov/

http://www.oshpd.ca.gov/

http://www.cdph.ca.gov/Pages/Default.aspx




http://www.census.gov/acs/www/






http://www.zipskinny.com

http://www.zipskinny.com

http://www.cdc.gov/

http://www.cdc.gov/

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/