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California PACEs Action

California Surgeon General, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris visits Fresno

On Tuesday, May 7th, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris held her first listening session in Fresno as she visits various parts of California. Her goal is to get a better pulse of what’s happening in the area of health and wellness within our diverse state.

There was a deep appreciation from all the Fresno leaders in attendance that Dr. Burke Harris would take the time to visit and listen to those working within our community. Though 90 minutes can go by quickly, it provided just enough time for us to hear from her heart WHY she took the role of Surgeon General. It also gave Dr. Burke Harris a great, first peek, into the work that is going on in Fresno County.

It was hard to dive deep into many of the topics we discussed but below is a list of some of the things that came up.

  • Focus of early healthy starts with our kids
  • Toxic stress
  • Health equity
  • Cumulative adversity
  • Challenges in funding
  • Racial Equity
  • Systems challenges in health care
  • Collaborative work happening in our community
  • Health with kids in foster care
  • Our homeless youth
  • Lack of physicians in our community- especially minority physicians
  • Role of state representatives advocating for our community

Dr. Burke Harris asked some follow-up questions on the funding challenges our county faces. Several folks chimed in from their perspectives. There was also good dialogue on the disconnect between services in the neighborhoods and school and the work within larger institutions.

As I mentioned, we really didn’t get into solutions, more a first phase of conversations. I’m hoping that we can find more time in the future to dig deeper into these topics with her.

In the meantime, it’s great to know that we have a Champion for our work in Sacramento. Fresno, the Central Valley and California is blessed to have Dr. Burke Harris as our first Surgeon General.

Artie Padilla

Every Neighborhood Partnership

Fresno County Trauma & Resilience Network

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I hope she focuses on the primary prevention of adverse childhood experiences.  In other words a new kind of parenting education.  One that reaches everyone, everywhere, all the time.  Visit advancingparenting.org.

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