As school districts consider how to reopen, Dignity Health St. John’s Hospitals want community members to stay informed of precautionary measures to minimize exposure of COVID-19. Pediatrician Imelda De Forest, MD, shares steps parents can take to help protect children, teachers, and administrators as they prepare to head back to school.
“Parents are concerned for the health and well-being of their children as they return to the school setting, and as partners in health care, we want to share best practices for minimizing risks of exposure to the children in our communities,” says Dr. De Forest. “As we enter the new school year, taking precautions against getting or spreading the virus will help flatten the curve and move toward resuming more typical schedules and school days.”
Dr. De Forest encourages gentle, age-appropriate conversations between parents and children to review hygiene practices, such as the importance of handwashing and coughing or sneezing into your elbow. Daily parental monitoring of children’s temperature and overall health and wellness is also essential, and keeping unwell children home is recommended. Ongoing conversations about how the pandemic may alter the school day will help provide awareness and understanding to children when encountering changes.
“We are proud to partner with local hospitals to educate the community about how to best protect their children during this pandemic,” says Dr. De Forest. “We want to do our part to keep local parents and children informed about how to stay safe and healthy as they return to some regular activities.”
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released guidelines for reducing the coronavirus spread and maintaining a safe and clean school building:
Cleaning/disinfecting frequently touched surfaces in the school and on buses at least daily.
Limiting the use of shared art supplies, toys, and gym equipment.
Keeping each child’s belongings separated from others.
Ventilation systems that circulate outdoor air.
Space seats and desks at least six feet apart. Turn desks that face each other to face the same direction or have children sit on one side of a table.
Create space on buses by keeping one child per row and skipping rows if possible.
Install barriers and sneeze guards where needed, like in offices, or tape lines on floors or sidewalks.
Close all communal spaces like cafeterias, dining halls and playgrounds.
Have children bring their own meals or serve individually plated meals in classrooms with disposable utensils.
Setting staggered arrival and drop-of times to limit contact between students and parents.
The CDC also advises the use of simple cloth face coverings for teachers and students to slow the spread of the virus and help people who may have the virus and do not know it from transmitting it to others. Cloth face coverings should not be placed on young children under the age of two.
July 16: Ventura’s new Police Chief, Darin Schindler, and Ventura County’s new Public Information Officer, Ashley Bautista, will be featured on the agenda of the East Ventura Community Council. Each has started in their new positions in the middle of a pandemic and social upheaval, and will discuss what that has been like and what we can expect going forward, based on their general philosophies. They will also answer questions submitted prior to or during the meeting.
The agenda will include a report on crime in the area, by the Ventura Police Department, and additional items of interest from East Ventura City Councilmembers.
Other topics may be added to the agenda, so be sure to check the group’s Facebook page for updates.
The council represents those who live east of Victoria Avenue. The public is encouraged to attend and participate.
Participants will first need to download the Zoom app on their desktops or smartphones. A paid account is not needed. Questions can be asked via the chat feature on Zoom or sent ahead of the meeting to [email protected]. Meetings can always be viewed later, on www.eastventura.org.
The meeting will start promptly at 7 p.m. Councilmembers will answer questions following the main program.
For additional information, contact Chairperson Marie Lakin at [email protected].
The Vagabond and Best Western Hotel recently turned into homeless shelter for the vulnerable homeless population has ended its lease with Ventura County. Citing difficulty with insurance coverage, and a desire by the insurance company to end coverage of the program.
Ventura County Department of Public Health took steps to slow the spread of the Covid-19 virus at the beginning of the emergency by securing housing in Ventura, Oxnard and Newbury Park. The county signed leases on two Ventura properties, the Vagabond and the Best Western
The cost of housing 400 homeless individuals is currently at 1.3 million dollars per month. The cost is shared 25% county and state and 75% by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and has been named “operation room key”. Funding for the program was scheduled to end on June 30th, however FEMA extended funding through the end of July. All the motels in the program have opted to terminate their leases even with a funding extension.
A new program administered by the county and backed by federal funds called project “Home Key” will help in securing hotel and motel rooms throughout the county utilizing a voucher program for the homeless being displaced.
The Vagabond and the Best Western are owned by Vista Investments of El Segundo who acquired the properties in 1997. The company will be faced with extensive repairs and refurbishment that will be needed after the program ends.
Tara Carruth, program manager of the Ventura County Continuum said “It was the motels decision to terminate the leases”
“The county is partnering with us to provide a motel voucher program to provide continued placement to high risk individuals,” added Carruth. We are transitioning from full facilities to offering motel vouchers for a select group of individuals that are considered high risk. “one hundred thirty individuals countywide have been offered shelter based on vouchers to those high-risk individuals,” she said. These individuals are the most medically vulnerable.
Voucher funding has been extended and will run throughout the rest of the year. So far seventy-five individuals have returned to the streets and remain unsheltered. “For some of the homeless it was their plan all along to return to the streets because they knew it was temporary and maybe weren’t engaging on a housing plan. Others either were not eligible for or declined every resource that was offered to them, and those are the folks that are still actively searching for housing and have income and just haven’t found a place yet and are working with service providers,” she said.
The motels in question have agreed to accept vouchers instead of leases at least for the time being. The county will pay for the nightly vouchers.
“The hope now is to get those individuals back into shelter through the voucher program. The county also recently started the process of potentially converting one or more motels in the count to permanent supportive housing” added Carruthers.
Father Serra was wearing a face mask before it was the law.
On a 4-3 vote the City Council will require masks to be worn inside businesses and government offices, on public transit and in most indoor venues that are open to the public. This order will go into effect once the City Council approves the final ordinance which will be considered at a future meeting.
The city manager will need to draft an emergency ordinance to lay out the details of the new order. It will be modeled on a similar order in Santa Barbara.
Councilmember Erik Nasarenko stated “masks have become such a common feature that I don’t even think people question it anymore. Ultimately it’s not about discomfort or inconvenience, it’s about doing whatever we can in whatever way possible to limit the spread of a highly infectious and deadly disease and if that means wearing a face covering, I think we should do it.”
Nasarenko, along with Councilmembers Cheryl Heitmann, Sofia Rubalcava and Christy Weir voted in support of the order. Mayor Matt LaVere, Lorrie Brown and Jim Friedman voted no.
Brown and Friedman voted no because they question the city’s ability to enforce the use of face coverings in businesses.
Police Chief Darin Schindler said enforcement of the policy would not be a priority for the department.
“I would obviously put communication in front of enforcement. I just don’t think it’s a viable option right now to expect us to contact people for purposes of enforcing them wearing a mask. It’s going to put our officers in a difficult situation especially with the current climate surrounding the use of police authority right now.”
Violations of the mask order would be handled through the city’s emergency action citation process, the same way that violations of other pandemic-related health orders are handled. Ventura plans to focus on education to try to obtain voluntary compliance from the public. But if that doesn’t work, a written warning may be issued, followed by an administrative citation.
On July 18, 2020, 100 high school students from the Ventura Unified School district will be treated to a Zoom MacBeth, courtesy of the Rubicon Theatre Company’s Fearless Shakespeare program. The teens are participating in the Library’s Youth Services summer reading program and this partnership with Rubicon is the first of it’s kind.
Working to engage kids outside of the theatre’s summer program has long been a goal of Kirby Ward, head of Rubicon’s youth season. Ward has been running the program since 2018. “The hard work these kids put in during our summer camps is remarkable and intense. It will be wonderful for their peers to see the fruits of their labor.” Originally, the hope had been for the Friends of the Library to bring a full house worth of middle schoolers to see a production from the Musical Theatre Camp. When it became evident that for the foreseeable future no shows would be happening on stage at Rubicon’s Main Street address, Ward switched gears. Rubicon reached out to Charles McDermott who is President of the Friends of the Library and offered the complimentary Zoom codes. “Taking on William Shakespeare’s immortal words is both a challenge and a gift for our students. But the work is for nothing if they can’t share it with an audience. We want the community to see it, and especially young people.”
COVID-19 has shut down Rubicon in the physical sense, but the summer education programs are going strong. Ward has embraced the opportunities presented by Zoom and online learning in general and he’s bringing his staff and the students along for a wild ride. Zoom MacBeth is guided by Director, Joseph Fuqua, who has run the Fearless Shakespeare program for more than a decade. Each morning, the students rehearse for several hours and then self-tape themselves as they work on scenes with their cast-mates. The videos are then sent to RTC’s videographer, Joseph DeMaria, who is compiling then into a Zoom masterpiece. The end result will be a part livestream, part video, part home-studio extravaganza.
Ward is eager to see what the high schoolers participating in the Library Youth Services summer reading program take away from the Zoom MacBeth. Rubicon is providing the Library with Mr. Fuqua’s edited version of the script for comparison to the Bard’s original. Fuqua has always tailored his revision to his audience – young people who may be seeing Shakespeare for the first time. He tries to keep his production’s running time under two hours, that’s including intermission, and he typically places his productions in a contemporary setting. This year’s MacBeth features a a spin on Graphic novels and their popularity with young readers.
Ward, McDermott and Fuqua are expecting this to be an interesting experiment in exploring how live theatre will translate to Zoom. All three are betting the Bard’s words can gain some new (and youthful) fans. “Theatre needs an audience,” says Ward, “this may be an unorthodox way of finding one but we want our students to understand that artists must evolve and respond to the realities around them.”
by The Senior Medicare Patrol National Resource Center
The Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) has been receiving complaints of unsolicited callers using the fear and uncertainty from the COVID-19 pandemic to prey on Medicare beneficiaries. SMPs, who operate in every state, help beneficiaries prevent, detect, and report Medicare fraud, errors, and abuse.
How to spot a scam or fraud
Be wary if you receive an unsolicited phone call that offers:
To send you COVID-19 testing kits, vaccines, prescriptions, supplies such as masks, creams, and hand sanitizer, or even a COVID-19 treatment package. Beneficiaries who give out their information sometimes get back or orthotic braces in the mail instead.
A new Medicare card and COVID supplies in exchange for a Medicare number. Medicare will not call you to offer a new card or request information in order to issue a new card.
More Medicare insurance coverage. Insurance companies who do not already have a relationship with a beneficiary cannot initiate a call. Information about changes to Medicare coverage because of the pandemic can be found on this practice tip from the National Center on Law & Elder Rights.
Other examples of potential COVID-19 fraud that SMPs have seen are health care providers improperly diagnosing patients with COVID-19 in order to receive higher payment; people going door to door at senior housing to perform COVID-19 tests; and hospitals attempting to charge for COVID-19 antibody tests.
How to Protect Yourself
To protect yourself, we recommend that you:
Contact your own doctor (not a doctor you’ve never met who calls) if you are experiencing potential symptoms of COVID-19.
Do not give out your Medicare number, Social Security number, or personal information in response to unsolicited calls, texts, emails, or home visits. Personal information that is compromised may be used in other fraud schemes as well.
Be suspicious of anyone going door to door offering free COVID-19 testing, supplies, or treatments.
Carefully review your Medicare Summary Notice (MSN) or Explanation of Benefits (EOB), looking for errors or claims for products or services that weren’t received.
Follow the instructions of state or local government for other actions you should take in response to COVID-19.
Contact your local SMP for help. Contact and other information for SMPs can be found at smpresource.org.
For Medicare coverage questions, contact the local State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) at shiptacenter.org or 1-877-839-2675.
For more information and resources related to COVID-19 fraud, errors, and abuse, visit the SMP National Resource Center’s COVID-19 Fraud web page.
The Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) National Resource Center serves the U.S. Administration for Community Living’s 54 SMP programs located throughout the United States, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The SMP Resource Center also promotes national visibility for the SMP program and helps the general public locate their state SMP proje
SuperDuperKyle performance Saturday, June 27 during the first weekend of Concerts in your Car. Photo by Felix Cortez
PLAYING THE GAME
I’ve spoken to a number of venue owners the past couple of weeks as they tread lightly doing their best to follow the guidelines in place to operate safely in this time of COVID-19. And without naming names, I know several have had to stop the music (literally) to remind patrons that wearing masks is mandatory in their establishment unless you’re seated at your table. Social distancing is being enforced and whether you think the whole thing is a conspiracy theory or not, it’s their business, literally! They can make up whatever rules they want to secure their venue, but the bigger issue is that they’re actually enforcing what has been mandated by the governor of California. Do you want them to be closed down by code enforcement? Of course not! So, I beseech you to please wear a mask, because if you don’t you’re going to not only put their business at risk, but you could pass along the virus not even knowing you’re a carrier.
We all want to get back to normal. We all want to hang out, and give hugs and hearty handshakes to old friends while taking in our favorite bands, but we’re nowhere near that point yet. If you feel strongly enough about not wanting to wear a mask, then please stay away and listen to music at home. There are plenty of live streaming concerts still being held.
NOT BACK TO NORMAL
Reopening doors, following safety guidelines and trying to get back up to speed may not include live music at this time for a lot of venues. I understand (she says with a pitiful lower lip pushed out trembling ever so slightly). The priority is paying the rent and the staff and rebuilding a clientele. So, don’t forget to support all your favorite music venues whether they have live music or not yet. If we do this right, and we do this together supporting where we can, we will live to see another robust economy with a booming music scene.
PLAYING SAFELY
And while we’re on the submit of live music in venues, let’s take it from the perspective of the musician. Not all artists feel safe enough to get back out there to play live. Trust me, they want to, but their better judgement is keeping them away for many reasons. You have your favorite bands, and solo artists, well why not reach out via social media where most of them have accounts. Let them know you miss them, and if you can, buy their music and some merchandise if available to show your support.
DRIVE-IN CONCERTS V
In each of my past four music scene columns I’ve been able to report more details on the Concerts in Your Car events by CBF Productions (California Beer Festival). This past weekend Ventura finally saw a large-scale concert with SuperDuperKyle kicking off the series over the weekend of June 26 and 27. Kyle, a former Ventura High School graduate, was well-received as he gears up for his album release on July 17, See You When I Am Famous.
I’m not going to lie; I am so relieved to hear portable bathrooms are now available as they were not when they first launched this series. Under their FAQ, the Concerts in Your Car website made it clear no restrooms on site, no getting out of your car, and you could not leave the event early. As a female, let me just say “Thank You God!” I just couldn’t wrap my bladder, I mean head around that one! Gratefully, we don’t have to worry about that now.
Peter Sauber, Mark Fain, John Jorgensen & Herb Peterson John Jorgenson’s Bluegrass Supergroup
Back to the business at hand, joining forces with CBF Productions is the Ventura Music Festival as they present John Jorgenson’s Bluegrass Supergroup. On Thursday, July 16. I love that Concerts In Your Car is being so diverse with the genres ranging from rap to bluegrass to alternative rock to country, there literally is something for everyone! And if you are a fan of bluegrass music, then you won’t want to miss Grammy-winning guitarist, John Jorgenson (Desert Rose Band, the Hellecasters) who will be joined by fellow music legends Herb Pedersen (Desert Rose Band, Laurel Canyon Ramblers), Mark Fain (seven-time Grammy-winning bassist) and Patrick Sauber (Laurie Lewis band).
I have a quick Q&A following here, but for more information on all the concerts and movies and for purchasing your ticket got to ConcertsInYourCar.com.
Q&A with JOHN JORGENSON
Pam: I’m loving the creativity of our music community; what was your initial response to doing a drive-in concert?
John: Indeed Ventura is a very creative community, and as a musician I feel quite comfortable living here.
When Nuvi [Nuvi Mehta, Ventura Music Festival Artistic Director] asked me to play the drive-in concert for the Ventura Music Festival I was thrilled. I have performed in so many varied venues over my 40 plus years as an entertainer so to get asked to do something new and challenging is rare, surprising and fun. In the last few months most of my contact with my band members has been to cancel or reschedule gigs, so to get to tell them about one that’s actually going to happen was great too.
Pam: What can people expect from your show?
J2B2 is an excellent ensemble both instrumentally and vocally, so people can expect world class singing and playing first of all. Our material ranges from very traditional bluegrass to newer songs from some of the best songwriters of our time. Our goal has been to bring meaningful lyrics into the mix of virtuosic picking and tight vocal harmonies. Hopefully the audience will laugh, wipe a tear or two, think a bit differently, and drive home with smiles on their faces.
Pam: Do you see more of these type concerts on the horizon?
John: Well, I sure hope so! The chance to get out and enjoy a performance from the safety of your own car while still feeling a bit of community and a shared concert experience is extremely rare if not impossible. Here is a way forward!
Pam: Musically speaking, what have you been doing during the shutdown?
John: Since the shut down I’ve been mostly using the time to go through my musical archives of older formats and transfer tapes, as well as organize memorabilia I’ve amassed over the years. I have also done a few remote recording sessions and contributed to a worldwide orchestral and choral collaboration. It’s definitely a time for all performers to rethink and retool.
SURF RODEO
I spoke to JD Drury just a few weeks ago and being the optimist that he is, he was still holding out that Surf Rodeo could in some form or another be pulled off this summer or late fall, but the word came out shortly afterwards that Surf Rodeo is officially off for 2020; JD hung in there hoping for a miracle, but alas…it wasn’t to be. The official post on social media: “It is with heavy hearts that after several conversations with the City of Ventura and State Parks, due to Covid-19, we will not be able to party on the beach this summer. We love you and we miss you! We will be back 2021!”
CROOKED EYE TOMMY
Tommy Marsh dropped off a copy of Crooked Eye Tommy’s sophomore CD, Hot Coffee and Pain which is scheduled for an August release. It was recorded in Ojai at Carbonite Studios with Grammy-winning audio engineer, Jason Mariani (Joe Bonamassa, Robben Ford). You know I’ll be spinning a couple tunes on the Pam Baumgardner Music Hour at CAPS Media’s KPPQ-LP, and we’re working on having Tommy be a guest on the VenturaRockSpot which you can view on the Ventura Rock’s YouTube channel. If you loved their last release, Butterflies and Snakes, well you ain’t seen nothing yet! Holy smokes, they hit this one out of the park! More details coming soon.
Do you have any music-related news or upcoming shows you want help publicizing? Please send all information short or long to [email protected], and for updated music listings daily, go to www.VenturaRocks.com.
As we join our nation in grief during this turbulent and challenging time, we are outraged and heartbroken. As we together strive for justice and meaningful change, NIA continues our work to promote health equity, eliminate health disparities, and enhance the diversity of the scientific workforce. We will build on and continue these efforts, and others, for as long as is needed to reach these goals. To that end, we would like to share with you some of the actions that we are initiating and/or enhancing to address these pressing problems, and opportunities for you to partner with us in moving the science forward.
The COVID-19 pandemic has served to highlight the institutional barriers to equal health for all within our nation. We are happy to have had the opportunity to co-lead the recently released Rapid Diagnostic Accelerator for Underrepresented Populations (RADxUP) funding opportunity announcements, which are focused on NIH-designated health disparities and other COVID-19 vulnerable populations, with our partners at the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) and other NIH institutes, centers, and offices. We also co-led NIH efforts to strengthen data collection on COVID-19 to rapidly assess the needs and impact of COVID-19 across different population groups, particularly vulnerable populations. We encourage the scientific community to carefully look at and consider responding to these FOAs, as it is imperative that we move quickly in attacking this public health crisis.
Additionally, we have had research programs in place for many years that were specifically designed to enhance the diversity of the scientific research workforce and of the populations who are studied in the research that we support, allowing examination of the bases for health disparities and potential remedies to achieve health equity. The Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research (RCMAR) represent a long-standing program established to enhance the diversity of the aging research workforce by mentoring promising scientists from under-represented groups for sustained careers in aging research. RCMAR Centers have a long track record of supporting the study of aging in diverse communities, which is a core component of the RCMAR mission. We recently expanded the program to address Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and AD related dementias (ADRD), given the exponential growth of the disease in the older population, the disproportionate burden in communities of color, and the need for a strong, diverse workforce to tackle this pressing challenge.
NIA’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers make outreach and education efforts in minority and underserved communities a high priority, working with local churches, community health centers, and other organizations for recruitment of a diverse research population. Our Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials Consortium is similarly dedicated, with a specific focus on increasing recruitment and support of minority scientists. And as part of our National Strategy for Recruitment and Participation in Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias Clinical Research, we are piloting new means of making outreach to communities underrepresented in research to overcome barriers to AD/ADRD clinical trial participation.
Our commitment to the science of health disparities is fostered by our Office of Special Populations. That office, working in collaboration with the NIA Task Force on Minority Aging Research, a subcommittee of our National Advisory Council, led the development of the NIA Health Disparities Research Framework. Using the framework as a guide, NIA has made hundreds of awards since 2015 to explore the environmental, sociocultural, behavioral, and biological determinants of health disparities related to aging. We encourage those of you who are unfamiliar with the framework to reference it as a guide to eliminating health disparities and advancing health for all in future research.
We are deeply committed to continuing to develop relevant knowledge and broadening our understanding of the challenges of health disparities, and to fostering health equity throughout our research activities and awards. We hope that you will join us with rededicated and renewed vigor so that the evidence generated can serve as the foundation for future approaches to eliminate disparities in health and promote the well-being of older persons, ultimately advancing the health and maximizing the contributions of all in our rich and diverse nation.
The Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) has announced that the Ventura County Public Health Department is among the first 25 local public health departments in the nation and the first in the State of California to be awarded reaccreditation status. The accreditation demonstrates a consistent and continued commitment to collaborative efforts to keep communities throughout Ventura County safe. The rigorous accreditation process requires commitment to quality and performance improvement.
“The Ventura County Public Health team is deeply committed to protecting and improving the health of every member of our community, including identifying and overcoming disparities and barriers to leading a healthy life. This recognition is a well-deserved validation of that commitment and their efforts,” said County Executive Officer Mike Powers. “During this unprecedented pandemic, we are fortunate to have such a dedicated, recognized public health department with the capacity and ability to respond effectively to protect the lives of all community members.”
PHAB is a nongovernmental nonprofit organization that administers the national accrediting program, which works to improve and protect the health of the public by advancing and transforming the quality and performance of governmental public health agencies in the United States and abroad.
Ventura County Public Health Director Rigoberto Vargas, MPH, expressed gratitude to the department’s “outstanding and diverse team of public health professionals dedicated to protecting health and promoting the well-being of all residents in Ventura County.” Added Vargas: “We are especially proud to have been the first health department in California to have been accredited, and now to be the first to be reaccredited. Achieving reaccreditation, all while also responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, further demonstrates that indeed, Ventura County Public Health is a high-achieving department that’s not just meeting, but largely exceeding, national standards for health department excellence.”
PHAB’s national accreditation program, which launched in 2011 with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has become the national gold standard for public health in the United States.
To receive national accreditation through PHAB, a health department must undergo a rigorous, multi-faceted, peer-reviewed assessment process to ensure it meets nationally established public health quality standards and measures. PHAB-accredited health departments range in size from large state health departments serving tens of millions of people to small local health departments serving communities of fewer than 50,000 people.
There are approximately 3,000 local health departments in the United States eligible for accreditation. Currently, there is a total of 36 state, 255 local and 3 Tribal Departments of Public Health that have achieved five-year initial accreditation or reaccreditation through the Public Health Accreditation Board, bringing the benefits of PHAB accreditation to 82 percent of the U.S. population.
