April Dembosky
April Dembosky is the health reporter for The California Report and KQED News. She covers health policy and public health, and has reported extensively on the economics of health care, the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act in California, mental health and end-of-life issues. Her work is regularly rebroadcast on NPR and has been recognized with awards from the Society for Professional Journalists (for sports reporting), and the Association of Health Care Journalists (for a story about pediatric hospice). Her hour-long radio documentary about home funeralswon the Best New Artist award from the Third Coast International Audio Festival in 2009. April occasionally moonlights on the arts beat, covering music and dance. Her story about the first symphony orchestra at Burning Man won the award for Best Use of Sound from the Public Radio News Directors Inc. Before joining KQED in 2013, April covered technology and Silicon Valley for The Financial Times, and freelanced for Marketplace and The New York Times. She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and Smith College.
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Only seven states have legalized human composting as a burial practice. That's why 29 percent of the bodies brought to Recompose, a composting facility in Seattle, come from out of state. -
Research suggests the biggest source of pain for children in the health care system is needles. One California doctor says the fear of needles is a serious problem, but proposes some simple solutions. -
A new approach to schizophrenia involves managing early psychosis symptoms and keeping young people in school or jobs. The treatment is effective, but private insurance plans don't usually cover it. -
A new California law will allow low-income teens on Medicaid to get therapy without parental approval. That's already allowed for teens on private insurance. But the change aroused opposition. -
In several California counties, new mental health courts open up in October. Officials hope to persuade people with psychosis to accept treatment. Critics say, it looks more like coercion. -
As young adults prepare to leave blue states and head to historically black colleges in states where abortion is banned, they're getting ready to safeguard their reproductive health during college. -
As some young women head to HBCUs in states where abortion is restricted or banned, they're getting education and birth control to help safeguard their reproductive health during college.
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Democratic leaders in California and Oregon are becoming more open to using involuntary psychiatric commitment to combat homelessness, drug abuse and untreated mental illness. -
Expanding the use of involuntary commitment is being discussed in liberal California and Oregon, where severe mental illness, drug use and homelessness are becoming political liabilities for leaders.
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CA voters are expected to approve a constitutional amendment on abortion rights. But critics say it would actually expand abortion rights, because the amendment ignores the concept of fetal viability.
