The Health Resources and Services
Administration's Border Health Initiative is managed through the
Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP). The HRSA Border Health Initiative
is housed within the Office of Rural Health Policy due to the cross-departmental
and geographic focus of our work. The office of Rural Health Policy
manages an internal Border Workgroup comprised of representatives
from all the Bureaus and Offices across the Agency. This workgroup
advises the HRSA Administrator on public health planning and policy
development within the context of a HRSA-wide planning framework,
which promotes and protects the health care of the American people
living along the U.S. Mexico Border area. This is accomplished by
emphasizing six themes – primary health care, collaboration/integration
of existing programs, health promotion/disease prevention, systems
development, human resources development and health systems financing.
ORHP facilitates intra-agency border health activities that cut
across the bureaus and offices of HRSA, with recent examples including:
- Work with the U.S.-Mexico Border Health Commission
to support two Border Bi-national Health Week (in October 2004
and 2005) in 14-sister cities along the U.S.-Mexico Border. The
theme was "Families in Action for Health".
- The Launch of the Border
Website at the Rural Assistance Center (RAC).
Examples of ORHP collaboration with HRSA Bureaus
include:
- Support of the President's initiative to expand
Community Health Centers (CHCs) (which currently include 31 CHCs
in the border region)
- Support to AIDS Health Education Centers (AHECs),
Health Education Training Centers (HETCs) www.aetcborderhealth.org
and HIV/AIDS Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS)
border initiatives to improve access to health care.
Examples of HRSA collaboration with other Federal
partners include:
- Support of the National Heart, Lung and Blood
Institute's (NHLBI) Salud Para Su Corazon or Health
for Your Heart program.
- Support of environmental health training programs
with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Improving
Knowledge Transfer among Health Researchers and Decisionmakers at
the Border: An Expert Meeting
Border
Health Web Site at RAC online (not a U.S. Government Web site)
U.S.-Mexico
Border HIV/AIDS Resource Directory (not
a U.S. Government Web site)
Border Health Staff
ORHP Border Health Staff consist of one headquarter
staff member and six Dallas regional staff members.
Border Health Directory:
Headquarters
Elizabeth Rezai-zadeh
5600 Fishers Lane, Room 9A-55
Rockville, MD 20857
301-443-4107
Regional
Frank Cantu, Field Director
1301 Young Street, Suite 1014
Dallas, TX 75202
214-767-3171
Margarita Figueroa-Gonzalez, MD
214-767-8068
Michelle Mellen
214-767-3070
Lilia Salazar
214-767-3073
Erma Woodard
214-767-3171
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