Proponents argue that a treatment plan developed by the CARE Court will be less restrictive than alternatives such as state hospitalization or conservatory.

To qualify, an individual must be at least 18 years of age, diagnosed with schizophrenia or another psychotic disorder, deemed likely to benefit from a supervised treatment plan, and determined to be at risk to harm yourself or others.

A recent analysis by the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative at UCSF and the California Policy Lab found that more than 760 people in San Francisco may be eligible for a CARE court referral, based on data from hospital emergency departments and the criminal justice system , if the The program starts in October. Some experts reckon the figure may be more than 1,000.

Ensuring that counties have sufficient funds to operate the new CARE courts is a concern, and that’s a concern shared by both critics and supporters. Agencies involved in the implementation of the CARE Court include the Superior Court, the Department of Public Health, the Human Services Agency, the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, the Attorney General’s Office and the Public Defender’s Office.

San Francisco District Attorney David Chiu said each participant must go through five court hearings before a treatment plan is approved. However, the state has not provided any additional funds for this, he said.

“In addition to the work that our office will do, there is, for example, the work of public defenders and other attorneys, the work of the court itself.” And all of these actors will need additional resources,” Chiu said.

And once someone creates a treatment plan, it’s not clear the city’s existing facilities will be able to accommodate new patients, said Charlie Berman, a San Francisco social worker. For the past decade, Berman has worked on the streets of San Francisco with people living with serious mental illnesses—the very audience CARE Court is targeting.

“I don’t think CARE Court is really going to do much more than the existing programs that we have because those existing programs aren’t really able to do their job as well as they should anyway because of the lack of capacity,” he said he . “And that means so many people cycling in and out [psychiatric] The ER is not hospitalized because half the people in SF General [Hospital] waiting for their placement.”

Director Hillary Ronen is frustrated and concerned that CARE courts will simply divert their attention and funding from other programs aimed at helping the city’s homeless population, including those with serious mental illnesses.

“It’s not the design of the CARE Court that I have a problem with,” she said. “It’s the constant distraction from attention and strategy and the inability to just stick with a strategy and execute it.”

Ronen added, “Overall, moving away from everything we’ve already done in San Francisco to implementing CARE Court is a net negative for the city.”

Breed – who can ultimately be held responsible for the success or failure of the program – dismisses these concerns.

The post San Francisco to Implement Newsom’s CARE Courtroom Plan to Deal with Extreme Psychological Sickness appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Local company ECM Technologies has secured an additional $400,000 contract increase to extend the City of Phoenix’s original $2.1 million to treat Sky Harbor Airport’s massive HVAC systems.

The company’s proprietary ThermaClear radically extends the lifespan and efficiency of HVAC systems with treatment throughout the life of the equipment, resulting in a further reduction in carbon footprint and significant energy savings of up to 15% per year.

ECM Technologies previously covered one of the airport’s facilities, which was part of a three-year pilot program conducted with the city at several of its construction sites. Operating costs and energy savings led to the company being hired to treat the city’s 12 million square feet of air-conditioned area.

The typical payback period for ThermaClear is between 24 and 36 months, based solely on annual electricity savings of 10 to 15%. Other benefits include longer equipment life with less maintenance. ThermaClear is compatible with most refrigerant types and associated lubricants and is fully guaranteed for the remaining life of the equipment.

“The trust the City of Phoenix has placed in us and our ability to reduce costs and their carbon footprint resulted in the $400,000 increase in our contract,” said David Fenton, general manager of ECM Technologies, in a press release. “Given the city’s mission to be carbon neutral by 2050, we plan to continue to be a trusted partner who will help significantly advance that goal.”

“We are strongly committed to actions that advance our goal of becoming a zero-carbon city by 2050, and this is one of them,” said Jim Gorombei, Phoenix Energy Systems Specialist, in the release.

ECM Technologies’ pilot programs have included a variety of operational building uses, including the Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, Arizona State University, Signature Flight Support, ISS Facilities Services and Transwestern. Successful treatments have been performed on all makes and models of major HVAC equipment, from 1 ton mini-split units to 2,000 ton water-cooled chillers.

The savings results were demonstrated at each location of the pilot property and validated by external, independent professional engineers.

For more information and project case studies, visit https://ecm-technologies.net.

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Septum. 02/23/2021, 12:38 am

• App-based cleaning platform incorrectly classifies workers, the city says
• Handy argues that an injunction would force a change in the business model

Handy Technologies Inc. must begin treating its workers as employees immediately because the app-based Handyman platform cannot demonstrate that it meets the requirements to be classified as an independent contractor under California law, the San prosecutor said Francisco with a state judge on Wednesday.

The city sued Handy in March for its worker grading practices. In May, San Francisco filed for an injunction, arguing that under California’s strict Worker Status Act, Assembly Bill 5, workers who use the cell phone platform are white-collar workers.

Handy exercises a great deal of control over its “pros,” the city claimed in its briefing, including a request to …

Maeve Allsup

Legal Rapporteur

© 2021 The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.

All rights reserved

The post Useful Should Deal with Employees as Workers, San Francisco Tells Choose appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SACRAMENTO (AP / CBS SF) – California spent nearly $ 200 million building, operating, and staffing alternative care facilities that ultimately did little good when the state’s worst coronavirus surge last winter spiraled out of control and drained Hospital workers were forced to treat patients in tents and canteens.

It was a costly way to learn that California’s hospital system is far more resilient than was thought at the start of the pandemic. Desperation and innovation have allowed the system to expand enough to cater to patients, even during the terrible surge in hospital admissions over 20,000 and dying nearly 700 people a week.

CONTINUE READING: Bacon can disappear from the breakfast menu in the San Francisco Bay Area

“Definitely some hospitals, especially in the Los Angeles area, were on the verge of the breaking point, but we didn’t see as much use of the alternative care centers compared to what was being considered,” said Janet Coffman, professor of health policy from the University of California, San Francisco. “As bad as the situation was in winter, it could have been worse.”

In the first weeks of the pandemic, Governor Gavin Newsom ordered the establishment of alternative care facilities in a former professional basketball arena, two state centers that usually treat people with developmental and intellectual disabilities, and other facilities.

It was part of an early plan to add an additional 66,000 hospital beds as California prepared for an expected crushing load of COVID-19 patients, one of many steps the governor took when imposing the country’s first statewide lockdown.

Ultimately, the state spent $ 43 million on setting up eight locations, $ 48 million on hiring contract workers, and $ 96 million on running it on a scaled-back plan, according to the The Associated Press from the Finance and General Services Departments and the Health and Human Services Agency.

The sites together treated 3,582 patients, records show, but half were in the first three months of the pandemic, when the number of infections was still low and it turned out the traditional hospital system could have handled them on its own. The sites reopened in early December and treated fewer patients over the next three months, although many hospitals were overcrowded.

The traditional hospital system came through the worst of the pandemic with little overflow into alternative care facilities because the state temporarily eased the staffing relationship between nurses and patients – to protect the sick and their carers – and because of a scramble, temporary outsiders, said Stephanie Roberson , Director of Government Relations for the California Nurses Association.

Brian Ferguson, a spokesman for the state emergency services bureau, said officials learned that it was better to align the state’s efforts with existing health facilities than to build makeshift, stand-alone hospitals.

For example, two empty hospitals reopened during a surge last summer, one each in Northern and Southern California, as the most populous state, New York, overtook most cases in the country. But she didn’t use them again during the winter wave, instead choosing to work more closely with existing hospitals.

Similarly, in early April 2020, Newsom announced that the Sleep Train Arena, the former home of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings, would be converted into a 400-bed hospital. In the end, only nine patients were treated within 10 weeks because existing hospitals in the area were treating other cases.

The state never reopened this main arena when the virus picked up again around Thanksgiving Day, instead treating 232 patients in the much smaller adjoining practice facility.

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“In hindsight, you could say, ‘Well, we would have the money we spent renting Sleep Train and we could have put it back into the hospital system or we could have put it back into PPE procurement ( personal protection (equipment) or any number of things, ‘”Roberson said. “But these are lessons we’ve learned.”

She added, “As we move forward, we need to look at all of these missteps and do better.”

Officials learned to be more flexible with opening and closing facilities and “quickly flip the location for added value or purpose” when it wasn’t needed for patients, Ferguson said.

For example, the surge centers were all closed until March when the worst wave of infections subsided. But two were shifted to other pandemic-related tasks – one was used for coronavirus testing and the other was used for antibody infusion treatments.

Likewise, contracts for medical personnel traveling at the start of the pandemic required them to work at the alternative care locations, even if they weren’t often needed. But contracts during the winter break have been rewritten so that “in cases where they are no longer needed, they can be quickly moved to a hospital” or to do other duties like administering vaccinations, Ferguson said.

State officials had planned to rely more on the newly formed California Health Corps of medical professionals, especially after 95,000 people initially answered Newsom’s call for volunteers.

But only a fraction actually qualified or registered.

“When the health corps wasn’t working as hoped, travelers were the next best option,” said Coffman, who studies health workers. “Yes, contract travelers are expensive, but at least you can rest assured that we can count on someone who will take good care of patients and have the necessary skills.”

California spent $ 612 million on contract doctors and $ 2.2 million on the health corps, most of which it hopes to get back from the federal government or the facilities they worked in.

The state has budgeted $ 74.5 million for the fiscal year beginning this month to cover late bills or if there’s another spike that needs the state to reboot.

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“If things turn for the worse – mostly Delta variant … we still want to move fast,” said HD Palmer, spokesman for the California Department of the Treasury.

The post State Spent Almost $200 Million Setting Up Area Hospitals To Deal with COVID Sufferers – CBS San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Well, at least they just barely made it in the end.

Yes, I’m fighting for positive results from the Cubs’ third straight loss, 4-3 to the Giants, and that’s all I have.

A furious ninth inning rally backed by some sketchy Giants defenses stayed short after the Giants pitchers 18 just retired Cubs batter.

The game started well again. Kohl Stewart looked pretty good for two innings and with Anthony Rizzo at the base in the second inning, Patrick Wisdom gave the Cubs a 2-0 lead [VIDEO].

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Nice to grab a pen too – not sure who that is. Does anyone recognize the guy who caught the ball?

That was Wisdom’s fifth home run of the season – in 30 at-bats. He had four for the Cardinals in 2018, so that’s a career high in just 12 games played (and he made a lone appearance in four of those 12 games). When all the injured boys return, they’ll have to find a role for him.

And here is an eclectic list of cubs:

Best SLG% in the first 14 games of the Cubs career since 1901 (at least 20 AB):

.906: Patrick Wisdom (’20 -21)
.854: Donnie Murphy (2013)
.806: Glenallen Hill (1993)
.800: Frank Ernaga (1957)
.800: Babe Phelps (’33 -34)

– Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) June 6, 2021

And not a list of Cubs who had stellar careers, though Glenallen Hill had its moments, scoring 59 home runs in 331 games in two separate stints with the Cubs (1993-94 and 1998-2000).

The only other Cubs hit before the ninth in Saturday’s contest was a single by Stewart, which led the third, his first major league hit. He was stranded and Javy Baez’s single in the ninth was the next Cubs hit – and those three were it for the game.

Give credit to Kevin Gausman for acting.

Meanwhile, the Giants were in the third and two more in the fourth ahead of Stewart, who battled his way to 79 total pitch scores while only posting 11 outs. The Cubs pen threw 4ning innings, allowing only two hits and three walks, but one of those walks, edited by Dan Winkler, resulted in the Giants’ fourth run. That was the decisive balance.

Cory Abbott was one of the Cubs’ replacements and he threw well on his Major League debut. He mainly threw fastballs at 93-94 mph, spent a walk and allowed a hit in two innings, but never gave up on a run.

The ninth inning in front of Submarine Giants specialist Tyler Rogers gave the Cubs their last chance. Rafael Ortega grabbed a mistake and after Kris Bryant scored in a force play, Javier Baez KB isolated in third place.

That game was scored by Bryant [VIDEO].

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I don’t think I’ve ever seen a shortstop and third baseball clash on a routine floor ball – especially two guys who have been around for as long as Brandon Crawford and Evan Longoria. Longoria was upset and had to leave the game. Hope he is fine.

Back to the action that brought the tie run to the scoring position and the lead run to first base. Willson Contreras cut the second out. I had thought that Javy might start third and try to pull a throw, and eventually Baez stole third base while Rizzo moved up to second. That got two runners into the points, but Jason Heyward hung up to finish it.

I mentioned Ortega above … he didn’t start this game. Why was he in the game?

Joc Pederson left the game tonight with a tight lower right back, per #Cubs.

– Russell Dorsey (@ Russ_Dorsey1) June 6, 2021

That apparently is also why Tommy hit Nance on fifth strike – two out and no one on the base and David Ross didn’t want to burn a pinch hitter so early as Ortega had to come into play for Pederson. That’s all the Cubs need, one more injured player, especially when Joc starts hitting. How did it happen?

Ross said Pederson pinched his back when he met Dickerson’s Homer in the third on the left wall of the field. Sounds like an everyday situation.

– Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) June 6, 2021

Here’s the piece in which that happened:

Photo by Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images

All in all, Saturday wasn’t a good day for the Chicago Cubs. The Brewers won on Saturday so the Cubs are now in first place with Milwaukee, both teams 32-26. The Cardinals lost their Saturday game against the Reds and are 1½ games behind first place.

The Cubs hope to make Sunday better and save one game from this four-game set. Kyle Hendricks will start for the Cubs and our old nemesis Johnny Cueto will start for the Giants. Game time is 3:05 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be on Marquee Sports Network.

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