Project Background
UCLA students are currently able to obtain medical care from the Ashe Center, which offers various comprehensive services that are listed on its website, ranging from immunizations to regular checkups to mental health services. However, issues with the Ashe Center have come to light on platforms such as Reddit where students have complained about the Ashe's inaccessibility—with limited appointments, scheduling conflicts, as well as dismissive attitudes from Ashe staff, some students have found themselves needing to seek medical treatment elsewhere or simply just disregard their health. UCSHIP (UC Student Health Insurance Plan), a University of California-wide medical insurance plan, is marketed as a coverage plan that allegedly increases Ashe's accessibility, intending to provide high quality and convenient healthcare benefits to all students through the Ashe Center as well as external healthcare facilities. As for care specific to the AsheCenter, BruinCare is another option that provides a limited range of services. However, there still seems to be deficiencies with the care received by UCLA students through the Ashe Center regardless of whether they are under these coverage plans.
About Our Project
This project intends to explore UCLA students’ experiences with seeking medical care during their time at UCLA, but with a primary focus on the Ashe Center. We hope for our mapplication to function as an outlet where students can confidently and confidentially share their stories about both on-campus and off-campus health services. The overall student population at UCLA will be empowered, but individuals that require more frequent medical attention, especially face barriers to healthcare access, or have had poor experiences with nearby medical centers may be exceptionally benefited. We hope that through this project, students can learn more about the comprehensiveness of medical services at these nearby medical centers, leading them to make more informed decisions regarding their own health.
Potential Long Term Impacts
With more user stories and voices being heard, we hope to start productive dialogue regarding the adequacy of Ashe Center services, especially for students with UCSHIP/BruinCare, and also learn about student reliance on off-campus medical services. Students can anonymously share their thoughts and feelings from their experiences, generating insight that can be helpful to organizations such as UC leadership and the Student Health Advisory Committee (SHAC) in order to improve accessibility of healthcare services to UCLA students. Most importantly, this mapplication is created with the goal of simply listening to everyone’s unique stories, enabling all UCLA populations to share their sentiments and be able to advocate for themselves.
Acknowledgements
A huge thank you to Professor Kochaphum and all of the visiting voices for leaving such large impressions on us and inspiring us to create this website!