Category: Health

A bocce ball athlete serves as inspiration for Special Olympics Butte County

Changemaker: Under Sue Barlow's leadership, the nonprofit grows
by Yucheng Tang | Posted April 28, 2025

photo by Yucheng Tang
Butte County Special Olympics Area Director Sue Barlow

This is ChicoSol’s fourth monthly profile in our Changemaker series.

Reneé Anchordoguy was just 10 when her older sister, Sue Barlow, took her to the state-level Special Olympics at University of California, Los Angeles.

During a race, Anchordoguy was running alongside a friend who began to slow and fall behind. Instead of pushing ahead, Anchordoguy also slowed down, reached out, took her friend’s hand — and together, they crossed the finish line.

“That’s my biggest memory of that one thing,” Barlow said, “about all the friendship they have.” Barlow remembered that after attending the Special Olympics, her introverted little sister with Down syndrome became more outgoing and confident. read more

Social workers on the frontline of Medi-Cal campaign

Work underway to get expanded services to low-income and homeless people
by Natalie Hanson | Posted July 1, 2024

photo by Karen Laslo
Pallet shelters

Daniel Reinhard, a Butte County social worker, regularly visits unhoused people at Genesis, a pallet shelter village in Chico.

Each week, he talks to people who are either renewing their Medi-Cal, California’s version of Medicaid, or need help accessing expanded Medi-Cal services. In January 2024, Medi-Cal, which already served one-third of all Californians, expanded services to all state residents who qualify regardless of immigration status, as well as to people already enrolled.

“The reason I go out to the shelter to talk to people [is] so they have that option to do everything the old-fashioned way,” Reinhard said. “You tend to run into people in that situation who don’t like to go into the county services building. Some of it is just transportation. Some people don’t like doing it online.” read more

Connecting farmworkers to healthcare in California’s rural north

Glenn & Butte counties included in effort
by Peter Schurmann | Posted April 11, 2024
As a “promotora” for Ampla Health, Maria Soto is at the forefront of expanding Medi-Cal access across Glenn, Butte and other rural Northern California counties.

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HAMILTON CITY – It’s late February and the road to Hamilton City about 10 miles west of Chico is lined with blooming almond trees, their pink blossoms blanketing the fields for miles around. A single clinic stands in the center of town.

Inside the clinic we meet Maria Soto, whose work as a promotora is an essential piece in California’s ambitious plan to deliver healthcare to all residents regardless of immigration status.

“I identify very much with the community,” says Soto, 57. “I worked in the fields, harvesting and sorting nuts here. So, I love it. It gives me a lot of satisfaction when someone says, ‘Thank you for helping me.’ This for me is invaluable.” read more

Unsheltered, Tom Covington faces hostility and sometimes violence

Unhoused are not protected under hate crime law in California
by Natalie Hanson and Leslie Layton | Posted February 21, 2024

photo by Leslie Layton
Tom Covington was struck by a flaming bag as he slept in a doorway.

Tom Covington curled up to sleep in a downtown Chico doorway on a January night near another unsheltered man. Both men were awakened around 2 a.m. by a flaming bag that was tossed on them and that burned Covington’s sleeping bag, hand and his right side.

Covington was able to slap the fire out, but the men were disgusted and angry to find that the bag was full of feces. Covington’s wheelchair had been taken by one of the two men who had been lurking around them when they bedded down.

Covington, a congenial man who was recently interviewed on Second Street as he sat on two slabs of cardboard on a cold sidewalk, was treated and released at the emergency room the morning of the attack. He still has four or five small skin wounds healing from the burns. read more

State will help California cities prepare for heat

Cities like Chico are under pressure to protect the unhoused
by Natalie Hanson | Posted September 12, 2023

photo courtesy of City of Chico
Chico’s tree canopy provides relief on hot days.

Cities like Chico are under growing pressure to protect people from harm and death as waves of extreme heat become more commonplace — and after California faced its hottest month on record.

The state, meanwhile, says it is launching a new program to help vulnerable communities — particularly the unhoused and aging populations — face increasingly hot seasons. Several experts on a recent Ethnic Media Services panel said cities must look for ways to manage extreme heat waves that will last longer and pose more risk than ever before.

In Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office, the state is launching a grant-based community resilience program to help counties and nonprofits across the state face this new reality, said program manager Braden Kay. read more

Medi-Cal recipients must renew to keep coverage

Butte County lacks providers who will take Medi-Cal patients
by Natalie Hanson | Posted September 2, 2023
Michelle Baass, director of the state Department of Health Care Services, spoke to reporters about Medi-Cal changes.

The scramble is on to ensure that millions, if they still qualify, do not get disenrolled this year from their state medical insurance.

In California, one out of every three residents is insured by Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program for low-income adults and families. That means that one-third of all Californians, or more than 15 million, will have their eligibility redetermined, according to California officials. Almost 90,000 Butte County residents qualified for Medi-Cal as of June of this year.

California has been able to “completely eliminate assets as a Medi-Cal eligibility criteria,” the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) told ChicoSol today; that change takes “full effect” on Jan. 1, 2024. read more