Judges’ comments: Because of deep budget cuts in California, the Adult Day Health Centers were slated for elimination. This series looked at the impact on the seniors and disabled people who count on ADHC services. Across California, nearly 40-thousand people depend on these centers for meals and medical care as well as a sense of community.
The project was a partnership between the California Health Care Foundation’s Center for Health Reporting and nine Los Angeles area ethnic media organizations. In many Los Angeles communities, local media are residents’ only means of following the news. With coordinating help from New America Media, this multi-lingual partnership yielded 10 print stories in four languages, three audio slideshows and a photo gallery.
This is local news at its finest — right at the community level. It is also foundation-backed journalism at its finest. The Center for Health Reporting stayed with the story as ADHC was slated to be eliminated on February 29, 2012. But at the last moment, the state relented and replaced ADHC with a new program — still the state says only half the current participants will be able to continue to receive services. The Center for Health Reporting says that the advocacy community read the stories produced and used them in its efforts to save the ADHC program.
Provide names of other journalists involved.
Daniela Gerson, Alhambra Source
Miko Santos, Asian Journal
Robert Wheaton, CaribPress
Gloria Angelina Castillo, Eastern Group Publications
Augustín Durán, Latino California
Geoff Chin, Media Central Inc.
List date(s) this work was published or aired.
October 26-31, 2011
See this entry.
- Bibiana Viernes: Her Center, Her Life (Video)
- Mary Sanchez: I Only Have Two Hands (Video)
- Photography Gallery: Adult Health Center Cuts Devastate Elderly, Disabled
- A Partnership With Ethnic Media on Senior Health Stories
Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
This series examined the impact of California’s elimination of the Medi-Cal Adult Day Health Care (ADHC) benefit on minority communities. ADHC provides meals, therapy and medical care, as well as companionship and a sense of community, to 38,000 poor elderly and disabled Californians. The centers also provide jobs for hundreds of local residents and relief to thousands of families of loved ones who participate in the program. The project was the result of a partnership between the CHCF Center for Health Reporting and nine Los Angeles area ethnic media organizations. In many of these communities, local media are residents’ sole means of finding out about local issues. Under the direction of the Center and with coordinating help from New America Media, the complex, multi-lingual collaboration produced 10 print stories in four languages (English, Spanish, Chinese and part of one story in Tagalog), three audio slideshows and a photo gallery. The stories and the visual elements were available to each of the partners. The issues were many, but connected: State budget cuts could force the centers to close, advocates said, leaving many frail seniors home alone and at high risk of landing in emergency rooms and nursing homes. Sixty percent of them live in Los Angeles County. If centers close, many family members would be forced to quit their jobs to become the sole caregivers of their loved ones. If center employees also lose their jobs, the economic health of many already hard-hit LA County minority communities would be further threatened. The project provided readers with a guide to assistance and offered them the latest information on the status and prospects for a program many had come to depend on.
Media outlets that published or aired this entry
- Alhambra Source
- Asian Journal
- CaribPress
- CHCF Center for Health Reporting
- Eastern Group Publications
- Impulso India Journal
- LA Beez
- Latino California
- Media Central, Inc.
- New America Media
Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
Court documents of a suit brought by ADHC advocates to force the state to retain the program: Esther Darling et. al. v. Toby Douglas, Director of California Department of Health Care Services (formerly Brantley v. Maxwell-Jolly and Cota v. Maxwell-Jolly)
A 2010 report by the health care consulting firm, The Lewin Group, on the impact of shuttering the program.
Explain types of human sources used.
Stories featured state health officials, elected state officials, ADHC advocates, ADHC owners and staff, local business owners, ADHC families and ADHC clients from the community in which each Los Angeles ethnic media organization is based. In the main story (A place where elderly find comfort, community), we used the following human sources: Officials: Norman Williams, spokesman for the California Department of Health Care Services Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada, (D-Davis) chair of the Assembly Aging & Long-Term Care committee Patrick Johnston, president of the California Association of Health Plans Advocates: Disability Rights California Lydia Missaelides, Executive Director of the California Association for Adult Day Services ADHC business owners: Nina Nolcox, CEO of Graceful Senescence, South Los Angeles Erin Pak, CEO of the Korean Health, Information, Education and Research center ADHC clients: Bibiana Viernes, an 85-year-old Filipina woman Silver Lake ADHC center’s program director Mila Anguluan-Coger ADHC families: Coulsander Johnson, 41, caregiver for her 65-year-old mother. Mary Sanchez, 73, caregiver for her 75-year-old husband. Because we collaborated with nine different ethnic media organizations, interviews were conducted in Tagalog (Asian Journal), Mandarin Chinese (Media Central, Inc.), Spanish (Latino California, Eastern Group Publications, Impulso) and English. Many of the stories needed translation from/into these languages for use by the partners.
Results (if any).
We followed the story and reported that ADHC would disappear on February 29 of 2012. An eleventh hour agreement between advocacy groups and the state resulted in the creation of a new center-based program almost identical to ADHC. However, state officials said that only about 50 percent of current ADHC participants would likely qualify for the new program, which is called Community Based Adult Services (CBAS). The advocacy community read and used the stories in its attempts to save the program.
Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
No corrections or clarifications.
Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
Project Editor Richard Kipling blogged about our effort to bring several different local ethnic media together, settle on one topic, set deadlines, meet translation needs, publication dates and story- and source-sharing. It took three months to produce 10 stories, three audio slideshows and a photo gallery. We reached communities that got their news primarily in Spanish, Chinese and Tagalog. More than 200,000 LA-area ethnic community members read and viewed stories on an issue that mattered deeply to them. Our advice: Seek out those communities that have little access to government reporting, particularly at the county and state levels. Be their eyes and ears. And listen to their concerns. The CHCF Center for Health Reporting journalists were initially so focused on the impact of the prospective center closures on the elderly and disabled that we had no idea the communities also had economic concerns about these closures.