CLEARLAKE – Sutter Lakeside needs your thoughts on how our community can create healthier children.
Childhood obesity is a national epidemic. One in three children in California is overweight or at risk for being overweight.
We can turn this around by coming together in community focus groups, called “World Cafés,” to share ideas and make recommendations for programs throughout Lake County.
Sutter Lakeside Hospital and the Health Leadership Network (HLN) are inviting all interested community members to a series of “World Cafés” to do just that.
The Health Leadership Network, a network of Lake County service provider agencies, has received a grant from the California Endowment to develop countywide obesity prevention programs.
Partners in this project include our school systems, hospitals and clinics, physicians, public health, early childhood development agencies, food and agricultural programs, and concerned citizens.
The next “World Café” will be conducted in Clearlake at the Best Western El Grande Inn on Lakeshore Blvd. on Thursday, June 14, from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
If you live in Clearlake, Clearlake Park or Lower Lake, plan to attend this fun evening. Refreshments will be served. Seating is limited so please call and reserve your space!
For more information about the “World Café” call Leslie Lovejoy at the Wellness Center, 263- 2998 or e-mail
To reserve your space or find out when a World Café is coming to your community, contact Jill Mills, administrative assistant to the HLN, at 245-5745.
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SACRAMENTO – The State Senate on Tuesday voted 35-0 to approve a bill by Sen. Patricia Wiggins (D-Santa Rosa) to allow doctors of audiology or practicing clinical Ph.D. audiologists to serve as qualified medical evaluators on the state Workers’ Compensation appeals board to consider cases involving hearing-impaired workers.
Existing law requires the administrative director of the state Division of Workers' Compensation to appoint physicians to two-year terms as qualified medical evaluators in each of the respective specialties, for the evaluation of medical-legal issues that may arise in disputed workers compensation cases.
In asking her colleagues to approve her bill (SB 557) Tuesday, Wiggins said that “audiologists are the most qualified professionals to determine whether hearing loss would impair a worker’s ability or whether hearing loss was secondary to noise exposure on the job.”
The California Academy of Audiologists, which is sponsoring SB 557, notes that other allied health professionals, even those without doctorates such as acupuncturists, can serve as qualified medical examiners (they also cite chiropractors, optometrists and psychologists. The academy asserts that “it stands to reason that audiologists should be able to do the same for hearing loss.”
“Including audiologists as experts in Workers' Comp cases will improve consumer access to professionals with special training in the assessment of hearing loss,” Wiggins said, “as well as a detailed understanding of the effects of damaging influences on the auditory mechanism that may occur in various work settings.”
Now that it has been approved by the full Senate, SB 557 next heads to the Assembly for consideration.
Wiggins represents the 2nd Senate District, which includes parts or all of Humboldt, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties. Visit her Web site at http://dist02.casen.govoffice.com/.
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