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.

The incoming head of the nation’s leading group of pediatricians says that autism and other developmental conditions are among the biggest health concerns facing American children.

My adult daughter suffered profound brain damage at birth due to a bungled delivery.

Reports that a Pearl River man who allegedly killed his father after a domestic dispute early Tuesday had been released from a Bogalusa psychiatric facility weeks prior to the event moved Washington Parish Sheriff Randy Seal to comment on the state of mental health care.

A Clovis-based nonprofit organization dedicated to “enhancing the lives of people with disabilities” amassed more than $13 million in assets in recent years, records show. Its past president and CEO received nearly $1 million in compensation in 2010 alone. But five of the agency’s longtime clients contend the profits – mostly derived from government funding – came at their expense.

I was lucky enough to be invited to see the Sonoma Developmental Center’s production of a pirate musical called “A-A-A-R-R-R-GH.”

The staff of the state board that will have the final vote on the fate of the Jacksonville Developmental Center opposes its closure.

Proposition 32 is stark proof that often you can tell a ballot initiative by its cover.

The main premise of Proposition 32 is that it would stamp out the influence of special interest groups, equally condemning corporations and unions to irrelevancy at the Capitol while ushering in a new day for regular folks. But a look at who is behind the initiative shows that it's hardly Joe Lunch Pail who has a rooting interest in the measure, dubbed "Stop Special Interest Money Now."

When Patrick Murphy was 6, he became obsessed with vacuum cleaners. The boy, who has autism, used to slip out of his house near Buffalo without telling his parents, running to a nearby appliance store or into strangers’ homes to marvel at vacuum cleaners.

A U.S. District Court judge Monday released the state's mental hospitals from federal oversight on all but one issue — a significant step in ending a costly six-year reform effort.

Each of the state’s five mental hospitals, including Atascadero State Hospital, now have the legal tools to ban certain contraband items from inside their facilities.

A labor-backed advertising blitz in recent weeks appears to be turning voters against Proposition 32, the ballot measure that would bar unions, corporations and government contractors from using payroll deductions for political purposes, according to a new poll.

Application at RegisterToVote.ca.gov.

A Napa State Hospital worker has pulled off the solution to a troubling problem -- how to carry the emergency alarms employees must wear.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bipartisan bill Tuesday intended to reduce workers' compensation costs for California businesses while increasing benefits to workers injured on the job.

A former State official who directed services for people with developmental disabilities in New Jersey has declared that New Jersey's plan to close two developmental centers and place the residents in the community is flawed and presents unacceptable risks.

One day after a patient attempted to choke a Napa State Hospital employee, officials announced Thursday that staff members at the psychiatric facility who were ordered to wear new safety alarms on lanyards around their necks will soon have the option of carrying the devices on a belt-loop clip.

It's been nearly 22 months since Napa State Hospital psychiatric technician Donna Gross was strangled by a patient on the aging facility's fenced grounds, where staff alarms do not function.

More than 156 years after the state opened its first hospital for the mentally ill, the last patients will leave its campus this week.

California is building the largest prison medical facility in the nation — and it’s doing it at a record clip. That’s because the state has to comply with a federal court order to improve health care for inmates.

Napa State Hospital’s new wireless alarm system that will be worn by employees will not be operational until later this summer, according to state officials.

The number of public hospital beds for people in acute psychiatric crisis plunged in 2010 to levels not seen since 1850...

Despite threats by Gov. Deval Patrick to shut it down for good, Taunton State Hospital will stay open, at least for the foreseeable future, with 45 inpatient beds.

It’s hard for average families to fathom what would drive a mother to abandon her disabled daughter, as reported by the Daily Herald, a Suburban Chicago newspaper (“Algonquin mom: Leaving disabled woman in Tennessee was best,” July 7).

Over the last year, Patton State Hospital employees have contributed over $42,000 to support programs throughout the local community.

With the first inmate patient due to arrive at the California Health Care Facility in a little more than a year, construction at the sprawling prison/medical center in southeast Stockton is fast approaching its expected peak.

A consultant who led the troubled effort to overhaul California's public psychiatric hospitals has played a lead role in federal reforms in at least five other states...

A federal judge proposed a plan Wednesday to relinquish control of California’s prison medical care after nearly seven years.