After working in obstetrics and gynecology for four years, Lisa Hernandez soon realized that she had a true passion for addressing public health at the community level. Since then, she has worked in a number of public health positions, including a three year stint in Santa Cruz County from 2013 to 2016. Now, she returns as health officer. Lookout caught up with her ahead of her first day on the job.
Health & Wellness
Posted inLatest News
Santa Cruz County reports first local death linked to potent animal tranquilizer xylazine
Santa Cruz County’s public health department is warning of an increasing prevalence of xylazine in the local drug supply. The powerful sedative isn’t an opioid and doesn’t respond to the overdose-reversal drug naloxone. The warning comes after the death of a San Jose woman in Santa Cruz in early June and as the county recently reported that overdoses hit their highest rate in more than a year.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
It’s never OK to make your kids cry every day — a family therapist responds to Junior Guards story
Santa Cruz family therapist Mara Alverson was saddened to see Lookout’s recent story headlined “Junior Guards joy: Why making my daughter cry every day was one of the best decisions of my life.” She doesn’t doubt Junior Guards is a great fit for many kids, but she questions “the wisdom of forcing kids to be part of a program that created tears every day for a week.”
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
The day the Santa Cruz homeless crisis knocked on my front door
In April, a homeless woman knocked on Sheila Carrillo’s door on the Westside of Santa Cruz. She was stunned, but then realized something else: She knew the woman. She gave her food and a shower and helped her get to a treatment center. But Carrillo wonders what will become of her and so many others who recently lost their homes when the city cleared out the Sycamore Grove encampment.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Junior Guards joy: Why making my daughter cry every day was one of the best decisions of my life
“The best day of 2023 came and went unnoticed by most of the city 13 days ago,” says Santa Cruz dad Dan Ackerstein. That’s because on June 12, the Junior Guards program to teach kids ages 6-17 water rescue skills began in the city of Santa Cruz. Similar programs exist in other parts of the county and propel kids to state, national and international competitions. Ackerstein calls Junior Guards “the most ridiculous, difficult, important and remarkable things about Santa Cruz. It’s basically a rite of passage for many families, including, now, mine.”
Posted inHealth & Wellness
Long COVID link to mental health conditions prompts federal advisory
It can be challenging to determine whether mental health illness is the result of long COVID, but “treating symptoms is vital to recovery,” said an advisory by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Posted inEducation
As the fight against RSV adds vaccines, UCSC researcher is on the cutting edge
Respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, raged last winter, contributing to a “tripledemic” where cases of flu, COVID-19 and RSV all flooded the nation’s hospitals at once. UC Santa Cruz professor Rebecca DuBois is deep into vaccine research even as a CDC committee recommended a pair of immunizations this week. DuBois works at the molecular scale, and her research is action-packed and futuristic-sounding.
Posted inHealth & Wellness
Cooking with a gas stove could be as bad as breathing secondhand cigarette smoke, study finds
Pollution from cooking with a gas stove may be on par with breathing secondhand tobacco smoke, according to new research.
Posted inLatest News
Dr. Lisa Hernandez named next Santa Cruz County health officer
Dr. Lisa Hernandez, a 25-year public health veteran, has worked throughout the Bay Area, including a three-year tenure in Santa Cruz County’s Health Services Agency. She is expected to begin serving July 5.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
LOL: Santa Cruzan is crowned world’s official greatest laugher
Carla H. Brown, a self-professed “recovering serious person,” is the planet’s best at conjuring laughter when there’s nothing specific to laugh at. She leads an online Santa Cruz group of 1,000 aiming to tap into laughter’s documented health benefits, and says winning the global competition gives her “a way to bolster the importance of joy and levity and laughter as a tool for healing and well-being.”
