Victoria Ojeda, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor, and Jose Luis Burgos, MD, Assistant Professor, both in the [VO1]Division of Global Public Health in the Department of Medicine, UC San Diego and the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC) have received funding from the 100,000 Strong in the Americas program to create new studying opportunities for students at UC San Diego and UABC around global mental health at the collaborative Health Frontiers in Tijuana student-run free clinic in Tijuana.
The 100,000 Strong in the Americas program is an education initiative launched by President Obama to increase the number of U.S. students studying in the Western Hemisphere to 100,000 and the number of Western Hemisphere students studying in the United States to 100,000 by 2020.
The UC San Diego-UABC collaboration, called Healthy Minds, Resilient Communities, involves students working at both campuses and at the free clinic, where they will help address mental health issues of vulnerable patients under the supervision of faculty and clinicians.
About the HFiT Clinic
The Health Frontiers in Tijuana Student-Run Free Clinic (HFiT) is a partnership between the UCSD School of Medicine and the Tijuana Campus of the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (UABC). The HFiT clinic is located in Tijuana's Zona Norte near the red light district and is situated <1 mile of the U.S.–Mexico border, adjacent to the world's busiest international border. The HFIT Clinic serves highly marginalized persons, including migrants, deportees, drug users, sex workers, the impoverished and uninsured, including disenfranchised Americans. Health services are provided free.