Border HETC

The mission of the the Border AHEC program is to improve access to health care for the Hispanic population and other underserved populations of California along, and 300 miles north of, the United States and Mexican Border through educational interventions that will improve the supply, distribution, quality and efficiency of personnel providing health services; to encourage health promotion and disease prevention; to assure culturally and linguistically competent services to the population; and provide recruitment and retention activities for providers interested in serving the target population.

The California HETC Program consists of five Centers with specific goals designed to contribute to the pursuit of the mission in their area of assignment. The five California HETC's are:

  San Joaquin Valley HETC

  Multicultural HETC

  Los Angeles Basin HETC

  Orange County HETC

  San Diego Border HETC

The goals of this project, conducted through the University of California-San Francisco Family Practice Residency Program, consist of activities to recruit bilingual and bicultural individuals into the health professions, to develop community-oriented primary care curriculum with a Latino emphasis for graduate and undergraduate education, and to provide exposure and training in primary care clinical settings.

Student recruitment is a cooperative effort with the Science Careers Opportunity Program at California State University, Fresno. The Latino focused health care curriculum is implemented at the Fresno, Selma, and Sequoia Community Health Clinics. Family practice interns participate in seminars discussing Latino health issues and are exposed to public health activities during family medicine block rotations at community agencies.