Keep an open mind when making cornbread B2
Will this T-shirt one day power your cellphone? B3
MONDAY | March 21, 2022 | $1.00
DAILYREPUBLIC.COM | Well said. Well read.
When children suffer
California to funnel billions into mental health overhaul California’s plan.” On March 7, her organization joined a coalition of children’s advocates and health providers in sending a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom, calling on him to formally declare the status of child and adolescent mental health in California a public health emergency. The challenges facing young people in the state, they said, are “dire and widespread.”
Jocelyn Wiener CALMATTERS
SACRAMENTO — Amanda Arellano felt a heavy weight pressing down on her chest. It was May of 2021, and the teenager struggled to breathe. Maria Arellano rushed her 17-year-old daughter to the pulmonologist. Amanda has cerebral palsy, autism, epilepsy, asthma and a heart murmur. With Covid on the prowl, they couldn’t be too careful. This wasn’t an asthma flareup, the doctor told them. This was anxiety. Sitting in a Jack in the Box near their home in Boyle Heights last month, Maria’s eyes filled with tears as she searched for the words to describe watching her normally gregarious daughter struggle. “It makes you feel very powerless,” she said. Many California parents know this feeling well. Two years into the pandemic, our children are in pain. Rates of anxiety and depression have shot up so quickly that several national leaders – including the U.S Surgeon General – have issued urgent public health advisories. School-based therapists report long waiting lists and an increase in fighting and behavior issues. Emergency room doctors say they are overwhelmed by the number of children coming in after trying to harm themselves. On top of all this, the state is facing a shortage of mental health providers. State officials know they have a serious problem and have vowed to address it. Along with county public health departments, school districts and other agencies that serve children, the state is grappling with a complicated challenge: Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration plans to build a brand new system
‘It won’t be this way forever’
Alisha Jucevic/For CalMatters/File
Amanda Arellano, 17, left, and her mother Maria at a park they love near their home in Los Angeles, Feb. 22. to solve these problems in the coming years. But pressure is mounting to help children like Amanda – now. Dr. Mark Ghaly, a pediatrician who serves as the state’s secretary of Health and Human Services, told CalMatters he feels “concerned but hopeful” about the state’s ability to meet the growing need, though he’s also “very aware that even the most short, short-term interventions are not as immediate as I think we would like.” Last year, Newsom’s administration allocated $4.4 billion in one-time funds to create a statewide Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative. The proposed sweeping transformation of the children’s mental health system will be funded by a sum many describe as “unprecedented.” The bulk of the money has yet to be distributed, but efforts to develop a
vision and work with stakeholders are underway. Tony Thurmond, the state superintendent of public instruction, recently told CalMatters he has visited 45 schools since July. Staff tell him that they don’t have the resources to help struggling students. “We know that this is job number one, to help our students address the trauma that they have experienced and are experiencing during the coronavirus pandemic,” he said. “That’s got to be our priority.” Children’s advocates are enthusiastic about the state’s commitment to the issue, but also worry that help won’t come soon enough. A crisis was brewing before the pandemic; Covid set it to a boil. n Suicide rates among Black youth doubled between 2014 and 2020, according to
state data. n Incidents of youth deliberately causing self-harm increased 50% in California between 2009 and 2018, the state auditor reported. Children’s hospital officials told CalMatters last fall that mental health emergency room visits spiked dramatically during the pandemic. n Between 2019 and 2020, opioid-related overdoses among 15- to 19-year-olds in the state nearly tripled, according to a CalMatters analysis of state data. Lishaun Francis, director of behavioral health for the advocacy group Children Now, appreciates the state’s longterm planning, but she wants action now. “I think what people are looking for is an emergency response,” she said. “That has never been the state of
For a moment, in March 2020, Amanda felt excited. Her school planned to close briefly; two weeks at home sounded like an unexpected vacation. But school didn’t reopen that spring, or all the next school year. And many supports Amanda depended on – social therapy, music therapy, physical therapy – moved online or fell away completely. Terrified of the virus, Amanda refused for months to venture out of the small blue house in Boyle Heights where she and her mother rent a room from another family. Always a strong student, Amanda grew increasingly frustrated during virtual learning. Sometimes a shaky internet connection booted her out of Zoom class. Other times, teachers were hard to understand. “I don’t know what I can do to calm myself down,” Amanda told her mother. Maria would see tears in the long-lashed brown eyes of the daughter she’d always known to be creative, happy and resilient. She’d pull out photos they’d taken on pre-pandemic outings. “It won’t be this way forever,” she’d tell Amanda. “One day this will end.” Amanda tried meditation and exercise. She lost herself in video games, playing Roblox See Health, Page A7
Board set to consider $27.9M in Covid-related programs Glen Faison
GFAISON@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET
FAIRFIELD — The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will consider $27.94 million in pandemic-related programs that range from affordable housing initiatives and local workforce training to opening an early learning center and providing services for local seniors. One item is to recognize $2.4 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund money to fund two board-approved proj-
ects with $1.87 million to the support renovation costs to establish an Early Learning Center at the Beverly Hills Elementary School in Vallejo and $530,000 to “reengage disconnected youth” in education and career pathways through the Solano County Office of Education. Another item is a third revenue contract amendment with the California Department of Aging for nearly $2.104 million for a total contract amount of more than $5.842 million to include a reallocation of $63,339 in federal
INDEX Arts B4 | Business B3 | Classifieds B6 Comics A5, B5 | Crossword A4, B4 | Food B2 Opinion A6 | Sports B1 | TV Daily A5, B5
and state money through June 30 and more than $2.04 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds through Sept. 30, 2024, to support the Napa/ Solano Area Agency on Aging as it provides Older Americans Act services. The item also envisions approval of a transfer of nearly $2.104 million to recognize the unanticipated revenue. Approval for each item requires a four-fifths vote. Approval of each item as presented by county staff would allow the county administrator to sign contracts necessary to carry
out the two projects within the budget. Both items will be considered on the consent calendar, which consists of matters deemed routine in nature and are considered on a collective vote rather than individually. Members of the board will separately consider two other pandemicrelated items. The board will receive an American Rescue Plan Act Subject Matter Workgroup presentation about affordable housing projects and programs and consider providing further direction to the work-
WEATHER 79 | 57 Sunny. Five-day forecast on B8.
group. The items under review include recommendations to provide: n $9 million in added amenities for the 67-unit
Tabor Commons project at 212 E. Tabor Ave., backing up to the Linear See Board, Page A7
3VJHS .PYS 2UV^Z 9LHS ,Z[H[L Dr. David P. Simon,
MD, FACS. Eye Physician & Surgeon, Col. (Ret.), USAF Services include:
• Routine Eye Exams • Comprehensive Ophthalmology • Glaucoma and Macular Degeneration Care • Diabetic Eye Exams • Dry Eye Treatment • Cataract Surgery • LASIK Surgery • BOTOX
Now Accepting New Patients! 3260 Beard Rd #5 Napa
707-256-5000 simoneyesmd.com
:HUKYH 9P[JOL` )\[SLY 9,(3;69® +9,
ZHI\[SLY 'NTHPS JVT