Mayor Chuck Reed on Friday abandoned what was supposed to be his crowning achievement, saying he had admitted defeat in his bid to get a statewide pension reform measure on the November ballot...

A coalition of Sonoma County government agencies and environmental groups is ramping up its fight to protect the Sonoma Developmental Center from development and to maintain residential care for an unspecified number of severely disabled clients...

All current California public employees, retirees, their spouses, parents, parents-in-law, adult children and adult siblings between the ages of 18 and 79 are eligible to apply for coverage...

Sonoma families are worried. However, we have an important resource that other families with family members living in closing developmental centers have not had. We have the Sonoma community.

As New Jersey moves forward, against the will of the families, to close the two developmental centers in the northern part of the state where our most severely disabled residents live, we wish to point out a few facts underlying this large-scale transfer...

78 percent reject it after learning it eliminates vested retirement benefit of public employees...

Members are encouraged to pre-register for their preferred fair date to aid CalPERS in planning for staffing and materials, but registration is not required and walk-ins are welcome...

Survivors of traumatic brain injuries (TBI) are three times more likely to die prematurely than the general population, often from suicide or fatal injuries, finds an Oxford University-led study.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) has opened its Long-Term Care (LTC) Program to new applicants, offering a new generation of LTC products designed to meet individual needs.

Only 36 percent support in new statewide poll...

Somali children with ASD were more likely to also have an intellectual disability (e.g., IQ lower than 70) than children with ASD in all other racial and ethnic groups in Minneapolis, according to the project findings...

Affected those with November 30 license-renewal dates...

"In California, our members' vested rights to their pensions are protected by the California constitution, statutes and case law..."

A sad succession of newscasts highlights the fact that people with mental disorders fall through the proverbial mental health safety net...

The budget problems of state and local governments have more to do with wasteful corporate subsidies than pensions...

Sister Rosemary Connelly is worried...

The Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and the Treasury today jointly issued a final rule increasing parity between mental health/substance use disorder benefits and medical/surgical benefits in group and individual health plans...

Infants later diagnosed with autism showed declining attention to the eyes of other people, from the age of 2 months onwards...

Wendy English has a voice, and she’s determined to use it to deliver a simple message...

Here are just a few reasons why Broome Developmental Center should remain open...

The committee focused its attention on the Napa facility, but will also be examining the other four state-run mental hospitals...

Joseph (JJ) Jelincic and Michael Bilbrey are the preliminary winners to fill two Member-At-Large seats on the Board of Administration for the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) according to unofficial results released today by the Pension Fund...

Four to join California Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians...

I have been advocating for people with developmental disabilities for 53 years. By no coincidence, that’s also how old my son is.

Contact them TODAY for a board-election ballot TOMORROW...

This past year, Patton State Hospital employees contributed more than $40,000 to local community programs through their support of the California State Employees Charitable Campaign (CSECC), said hospital Executive Director Carlos Luna.

System offers more HMO options...

With time ticking down on a task force created to determine the fate of four state-run institutions that house some of California's most profoundly disabled people, supporters of the Sonoma Developmental Center hit the town plaza Saturday in an attempt to rally support for keeping them open.

A Patton State Hospital patient charged with first-degree murder in the beating death of another patient over Labor Day weekend, was accused in 2008 of fatally stabbing a patient at Napa State Hospital.

To show public support for keeping the Sonoma Developmental Center open, the SDC Parent Hospital Association will hold a march and rally Saturday, September 14 on Sonoma Plaza from noon to 1 p.m.

One of the issues that is rarely mentioned is the current State Administration has falsely cited the tenets of a United States Supreme Court decision in order to support their plan to deinstitutionalize...

CalPERS Health Benefits Open Enrollment is almost here and CalPERS Health Plan enrollees (with membership prior to July 1, 2013) will begin receiving their Open Enrollment packets in the mail near the end of August...

Our daughter is 52 and has lived at Woodbridge Developmental Center for 48 years. She was not expected to live past the age of 5; we think that says something about the dedicated care she has received at Woodbridge.

When overseers in the city of Detroit, in filing for bankruptcy protection, pointed the finger at public employee pensions, it sent the sky-is-falling folks here in California into a tizzy, working overtime to draw parallels between the Motor City and the Golden State. But comparing Detroit to California is like, well, comparing a Ford Taurus to an iPad.

For some people with severe mental illness, life is a cycle of hospitalization, skipped medication, decline and then rehospitalization...

CalPERS has initiated a project to ensure dependents enrolled in our health benefits program meet the plan eligibility guidelines so that only eligible dependents are covered...

CalPERS is offering a one-time exception enrollment period for same-sex spousal health coverage following the June 26, 2013, Supreme Court decision on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)...

Coercion should have no place in the lives of families whose loved ones live at and are being cared for at the training center in Madison Heights or at the other state training centers.

A Napa State Hospital patient on Thursday was charged in connection with an assault reported Tuesday night at the state psychiatric facility, according to court records.

Process feels rushed to some...

Assembly panel hears testimony on progress...

Will provide mental health, medical care to 1,722 inmate-patients...

A patient was arrested Sunday night in connection with an assault against a registered nurse Sunday evening at Napa State Hospital, according to a hospital representative.

Women in the U.S. exposed to high levels of air pollution while pregnant were up to twice as likely to have a child with autism as women who lived in areas with low pollution, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). It is the first large national study to examine links between autism and air pollution across the U.S.

Research from North Carolina State University, the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) and the University of South Florida shows that outpatient treatment of mental illness significantly reduces arrest rates for people with mental health problems and saves taxpayers money.

It takes commitment to show up for a 6 a.m. class on a college campus long since deserted for summer break...

California Health and Human Services (CHHS)  Secretary Diana S. Dooley today announced the members appointed to the Future of the State Developmental Centers Task Force which includes consumers, consumer advocates, regional centers, community service providers, organized labor, families of developmental center residents, members of the Legislature and the Department of Developmental Services staff.

A federal judge has agreed to enter a temporary restraining order to halt the movement of residents out of the Murray Developmental Center in Centralia.

As the parent of someone whose very life is in the sights of this task force’s focus, and as the representative of many families whose loved ones require developmental service care, I pray that this task force will honestly and objectively consider the life-sustaining needs of our loved ones and not be motivated by misleading headlines, fiscal considerations or political pressure.

All patient movement at Atascadero State Hospital was restricted for about two days starting Monday afternoon after officials there received a report of a patient with an improvised weapon.

Review commonly asked questions and answers about the CalPERS Long-Term Care Program premium increase...

Many have lived for decades at Lanterman, which provides a secure environment with on-site day programs, schools, acute facilities and a full complement of licensed professional staff at all levels.

This is the first CDC report to track the number of U.S. children age 3-17 years who have specific mental disorders or indicators of mental health...

Study adds to evidence of overlap with schizophrenia...

A Napa State Hospital patient was charged Wednesday in connection with an assault at the psychiatric facility, according to court records.

Like other states, Wyoming faces difficult decisions on how best to care for its citizens with intellectual disabilities (formerly “mental retardation"), developmental disabilities (such as autism and cerebral palsy), and brain injuries.

Prestinary has assembled a trove of early photos from the California State Library and the Napa County Historical Society, but is looking for more personal images from locals who once worked there.

Lanterman Developmental Center in Pomona is more than two years into a closure process that has moved hundreds of former residents into community care facilities in the surrounding area and beyond.

For me, as the mother of a 42-year-old resident of North Jersey Development Center, community placement is unsuitable for my daughter and others like her.

At Porterville Developmental Center, volunteers are the entities’ greatest natural resource. That was the theme centering around the center’s annual recognition luncheon which honored dozens of volunteers, individual and business donors, community clubs and high school students who have donated time, services and monetary donations to the clients and staff of PDC over the past year.

There are approximately 2.5 million psychiatric admissions to hospitals every year in the U.S...

Although experts have long thought of midlife as a time of stability and emotional contentment, baby boomers are proving to be an unfortunate exception...

I truly believe, if it wasn’t for WDC, my brother would have passed away a long time ago.

Critical legislative support was given this week for a new safety system that will equip Atascadero State Hospital employees with new safety alarms they can use when attacked by patients.

Coby Pizzotti of the California Association of Psychiatric Technicians said his organization proposed the bill to improve hospital worker safety...

The RAND results show that dementia currently afflicts nearly 15 percent of people aged 71 or older, about 3.8 million people. By 2040, the authors said, that number will balloon to 9.1 million people...

A dozen employees at Atascadero State Hospital were hurt during aggressive incidents with patients in March, according to a batch of preliminary reports from the mental health facility.

In less than a year’s time, the federal government is again revising the prevalence of autism upward, saying the developmental disorder now affects 1 in 50 children.

During a recent visit to a group home for the developmentally disabled, Gov. Chris Christie stated that “he would not revisit” the decision to close two of New Jersey’s seven developmental centers “just because three or 400 people showed up at a hearing.”

This report examines whether state employees took this additional time off—or whether, after accounting for changes in use of vacation and other time, they worked about as many days as they did before.

Three nursing employees at Atascadero State Hospital were hurt this week in one incident...

A U.S. senator is calling for a federal investigation into abuse and deaths of individuals with developmental disabilities at group homes nationwide.

A state Senate committee today approved a bill that would rescind a controversial decision to close two of the state’s developmental centers...

In Stockton, the new California Correctional Health Care Facility is hiring thousands of workers...

An NIMH-funded study published online today in Lancet reveals that the five most common disorders—autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disease, schizophrenia, and major depression—all share similar genetic components.

Nearly a dozen employees at Atascadero State Hospital were hurt during aggressive incidents with patients since the end of January...

On his bad days, Adam Bertman would crush light bulbs with his bare hands. He once launched the heavy lid of a toilet tank down the stairs, striking a caregiver.

The state wants to close two developmental centers, shifting residents to more distant centers or group homes. Parents say that would be a tragedy.

There were 44 people, 18 of them children, lingering in emergency rooms this week, suffering a mental health crisis and waiting for a state hospital bed.

In the language of Sacramento County jailers, Matthew Herrera is TSEP, short for total separation, a designation given to inmates who are kept isolated for the safety of themselves and others.

He’s been there for as long as anyone can recall and, as far back as most can remember he’s gone almost every day to the same concrete bridge over Sonoma Creek...

Residents of the Wyoming Life Resource Center, and their families and friends are facing an uncertain future.

Four nursing employees at Atascadero State Hospital were hurt during aggressive incidents with patients since last week, according to a preliminary report from the mental facility.

One day in October, Rena Dubin got a call saying her 15-year-old daughter, Mia, who has Asperger’s syndrome and an anxiety disorder, had a panic attack...

Seven employees at Atascadero State Hospital were hurt in aggressive incidents with patients so far this year, according to preliminary reports from the facility.

Some people diagnosed with autism in childhood appear to lose all symptoms of the developmental disorder with age...

The U.S. military lost more service members to suicide than combat last year as the number of troops who took their lives rose to a record high.

The family members made obvious and valid points as to the need for such special centers...

California officials asked a federal court late Monday to dismiss its requirements for huge reductions in inmate populations.

After a string of complaints on assaults and costly violations, ASH re-evaluates its operations...

While it is a painful truism that brutality and violence are at least as old as humanity, so, it seems, is caring for the sick and disabled.

Four Atascadero State Hospital employees reported being hurt by patients from Nov. 30 to Dec. 10, according to a set of preliminary attack reports from the facility.

For Marilyn Carr, the Woodbridge Developmental Center is her 53-year-old son Eugene’s home, the place where he has lived for the past 37 years.

The article “Northwest center for disabled is closed” (Nov. 27) brings to light a national issue about the care of people with severe mental and physical disabilities.

Research conducted by University of Southern California (USC) and Children's Hospital Los Angeles scientists demonstrates that polluted air -- whether regional pollution or coming from local traffic sources -- is associated with autism.

 Ahead-of-schedule site could see first inmate in July...

Six nursing employees at Atascadero State Hospital were hurt while working with aggressive patients in recent days, reporting injuries ranging from a cut on the head to neck and groin pain, according to a preliminary report from the facility released Thursday.

What has actually happened at JDC?

Four employees at Atascadero State Hospital were injured during incidents with patients in the last week, according to a preliminary report from the facility.