UCSF has an opportunity to fulfill its promise towards advancing health worldwide by uplifting a healthy climate towards immigrants, upholding international asylum law and other human rights protections.
The UCSF Health and Human Rights Initiative (HHRI) brings together leading clinicians from across UCSF's ecosystem so that these multidisciplinary partners with decades-long expertise in health services for immigrants can collaborate towards health equity. UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, and the Departments of Family and Community Medicine, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and Pediatrics, along with members of the Trauma Recovery Center / Survivors International, UCSF School of Medicine, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and clinics, the San Francisco Department of Public Health, and many others have united in an unprecedented commitment to address this challenge to our community’s and country’s health.
HHRI is now part of the Institute of Global Health Sciences (IGHS), which works to improve health and reduce inequities locally and globally. IGHS is a champion and innovator in academic global health, with a deep commitment to improving the health of marginalized communities.
HHRI and IGHS both work to solve global health problems so that people can live healthy, productive lives by:
- Applying high-quality scientific evidence to inform health policies and practices
- Training future leaders in global health
- Building the capacity of our implementing partners
HHRI’s work includes providing services, training and education, community partnership, research, and advocacy. Our first efforts included a medical student elective on asylum health, a monthly clinic offering pro bono medical and psychological forensic affidavits, and coordination of asylum evaluations across partner sites. HHRI sponsored a community-wide training to catalyze skill development for local health professionals in forensic affidavit international standards. As a centralized structure for our referring partners, HHRI serves as a foundation to facilitate increased access to asylum evaluations and primary health referrals, ongoing training and mentorship, and will serve as a hub for collaboration on research and advocacy across disciplines. To expand the national reach of its professional trainings, HHRI became a founding co-leader of The Asylum Medicine Training Initiative which trains clinicians to meet the need for forensic medical evaluations of people seeking asylum in the U.S.
I can’t express (in writing, at least) how grateful I am for your extraordinarily thoughtful and detailed draft. The client and I reflected on Tuesday about her experience with you all. She felt seen, heard, supported, and empowered by your grounding, empathetic, and trauma-informed wisdom and care. She sang your and your team’s praises, and even shared she left the clinic site feeling content. Thank you.
Attorney
A quick overview of HHRI
