News Archive

September is Health Aging Month and the beginning of Latinx Heritage Month, an important time to shine a light on the latest research around Alzheimer’s and dementia prevention for one of the highest affected populations.

One of the things we have learned from the pandemic is who our essential workforce is – the people who keep us healthy, stock our shelves with food, teach our children, and deliver the goods we cannot live without. But who is considered an essential or frontline worker, and is that definition keeping up with today’s health care models?

As children and adolescents go back to school across the country this month, they face escalating mental health challenges. Clinical anxiety and depression among youth has doubled during the pandemic. Gun violence in the U.S. has reached an unprecedented level, and according to a June 2022 report by the National Center for Education Statistics, school shootings during the 2020-21 school year reached the highest number in two decades.

In a melding of nationally recognized health care experts, researchers, community partners and legislators with entertainment industry artists and professionals, City of Hope’s Music, Film and Entertainment Industry group presented the inaugural California Coalition of Cancer Equity (C3E) Symposium in conjunction with Closing the Care Gap on June 21 and 22, 2022 at the GRAMMY museum.

Counting is the core of scientific research. This is not the case today for LGBTQ+ people at the most fundamental level: the death count. While it is well documented that LGBTQ+ people have higher rates of suicidal ideation, substance abuse and other potentially life-threatening behavioral health risks, there are no standard statistics that record the number of deaths each year for those who identify as LGBTQ+. Their lives — and deaths — are literally not counted. 

Personal freedom is an essential right in the United States for which its residents have fought since the country’s founding. While the execution of this right might not always have been considered a success, most would agree that we have made progress. The recent ruling by the Supreme Court to overturn Roe vs. Wade, however, seems a perilous move away from the personal freedom that women have achieved to date.

An estimated 83% of the 20 million LGBTQ+ people in the United States have experienced abuse or significant adverse childhood experiences (ACE) that have significantly impacted their mental health as adults compared to their heteronormative peers.

Juneteenth is an important part of American history we all need to celebrate. And use it as an opportunity to come together to push to eliminate structural racism in the United States.

On May 11, 2022, John Oberg walks the stage to receive his Doctorate in Social Work (DSW) from the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, a long-held goal for this self-described “Trojan for Life” whose grandfather, a surgeon, taught in the USC medical school and whose mother is a USC alumna. He began a pre-med undergraduate degree at USC and then his path led him elsewhere, in the process earning a BA and then an MBA with concentrations in management of technology, policy and planning.

Jacob Cepollina came into the Master of Social Work (MSW) program at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work very clear on what they wanted to do: be the kind of advocate for the next generation of trans youth that they wished they had in childhood.