Treatment

Apr 27 2011

Low-income families

LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Citing a nearly hundred-fold increase in autism disorders since 1993, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Wednesday to pursue funding for programs to help children with autism in low-income families.

The number of children in the U.S. with disorders along the autism spectrum has gone from 1 in 10,000 in 1993 to 1 in 110 in 2010, said Supervisor Don Knabe, referencing studies by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

Brittney M. Walker  |   OW Staff Writer
Nov 25 2010

Holistic treatment

World AIDS Day is Dec. 1, and on that Wednesday, organizations, HIV/AIDS research supporters, and activists will rally in the name of safe sex and virus awareness. HIV/AIDS is epidemic among Blacks globally and has taken on a monstrous face that is killing us at an alarming rate.

In 2008, the Centers for Disease Control noted that 18,328 African Americans were diagnosed with AIDS adding to the more than 400,000 diagnosis since the discovery of the syndrome.

California was the leading region in the U.S. in 2008 with the most AIDS diagnosis.

Oct 18 2010

Raises money for APLA

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif.—About 30,000 people, including celebrities and elected officials, raised almost $2.9 million for research and AIDS patient assistance at the AIDS Walk Los Angeles.

A big crowd turned out in drizzly, gray skies at West Hollywood Park to raise funds to help treat and care for people living with AIDS/HIV. Since 1985, the event has raised about $66 million for AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA), one of the largest nonprofit AIDS service organizations in the country.
 

Lisa Olivia Fitch  |   OW Contributor
Oct 14 2010

October is breast cancer awareness month

Ninety percent of White women who are diagnosed with breast cancer will live at least five years, but only 76 percent of Black women with the same diagnosis will live five years, according to the American Cancer Society. Is breast cancer more difficult to detect among Black women because they have denser, thicker breast tissue?

Cynthia E. Griffin-  |   OW Managing Editor
Jan 17 2009

NAMI sponsor vigil to highlight incarceration instead of treatment of the mentally ill

The Urban Los Angeles Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness is holding a candlelight prayer vigil for justice Sunday from 5-6 p.m. in front of the Twin Towers Correctional facility, 450 Bauchet St., in downtown Los Angeles.

The purpose of the vigil is to: (1) pray for public understanding of mental illness as biological brain disorder; (2) pray for more housing facilities where people can be transitioned from arrest to treatment; (3) pray to raise the awareness of the criminalization of the mentally ill where mental illness means incarceration.

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.
 

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.
 

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.