Toby Lewsadder stepped outside an Ace Hardware store wearing a simple one-strap dust mask. He knew it wasn’t the right defense against the wildfire smoke lingering in the air, but it was all he could find.

California is in the throes of a mental health crisis. But there’s a severe shortage of mental health professionals, which experts predict will only get worse. Comstock’s looks into access to mental health resources and efforts to get services to the people who need them most.

For more than 50 years, Yolo Family Service Agency provided mental health services to Yolo County. In May, the small nonprofit agency shut down for good.

The Tuesday after renowned chef Anthony Bourdain committed suicide, Patrick Mulvaney asked for help. The owner of Mulvaney’s B&L restaurant in Midtown Sacramento could no longer cook in good conscience — but he needed guidance.

More than 10 million people live with Parkinson’s disease and there is no cure. Decades ago it was thought that exercise could exacerbate symptoms of the disease; now studies show it to be effective in delaying the onset of symptoms. 

With the June opening of its Downtown Commons Medical Office Building, Kaiser Permanente has reimagined what a doctor’s office can look like.

Diana Dooley may have led the largest agency in California’s government as secretary of health and human services for the past eight years, a job that led to her current post as Gov. Jerry Brown’s chief of staff—but she’s also a country gal from Hanford, in the Central Valley.

One in five adults in this country will experience a diagnosable mental illness during their lifetime. Here, in Sacramento County, an estimated 300,000 residents are living with mental illness, which impacts every ethnic, racial, cultural, economic, religious, gender, sexual orientation and age group.

Need to fill a prescription? Pick up a medication for your pet? Get a professional review of a complicated list of meds? How about a facial? Tackling this list could take all morning and require several stops around town, but one specific stop could do it.

Clean carpets, proper ventilation and special filters may help keep allergens out of the workplace. Another strategy entails sealing cracks in a building to make sure unwanted particles can’t sneak in.