The border project: psychologist in San Diego and Tijuana launch bi-national collaboration - estudios del comportamiento de habitantes de estas areas - TA: studies on the behavior of the inhabitants of these areas

Hispanic Times Magazine, May-June, 1997 by Meryl Ginsberg

In 1993, Dr. Bernardo Ferdman, an associate professor of organizational psychology at the San Diego, California campus of the California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP), established "The Border Project/El Proyecto de la Fontera" to "address the opportunities and challenges presented to behavioral science practitioners, educators and researchers in this unique binational region." San Diego and Tijuana "have come to function as one integrated, interdependent region," he said. "It is likely that this trend will only accelerate. The goal of the Border Project is to promote and engage in international cooperation and exchange in psychological services, training, and research. We want to promote the well-being of all people on both sides of the border."

It is not surprising that Dr. Ferdman would be interested in this kind of multinational collaboration. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Dr. Ferdman has lived in that country, New York, Puerto Rico, Israel, and California. Although his native tongue is Spanish, be speaks three languages and has a reading command of a fourth. He earned a B.A. at Princeton University in 1980, graduating magna cum laude, and subsequently a Ph.D. in social and organizational psychology at Yale University in 1986. His dissertation was called: "Evaluating People in Intercultural Interactions."

Recently, four years of collecting information about San Diego and Tijuana resources, networking with colleagues at other institutions, and promoting the idea of a cross-border collaboration finally bore fruit. Psychologists and other mental health professionals from universities and agencies on both sides of the border attended an all-day meeting held at CETYS Universidad (Centro de Estudios Tecnolgicos y Superiores), on "University and Community: The Behavioral Sciences' Involvement in a Transborder Context."

Planned, coordinated, and moderated by Jose Miguel Guzman Perez, Dean of Behavioral Sciences at CETYS, the meeting was cosponsored by representatives from CETYS and CEUX (Centro Estudios Universitarios Xochicalco) in Mexico, and San Diego State University (SDSU), United States International University (USIU), and the California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP) from the U.S., as well as Baja California's Department of Education and Social Welfare (la Secretaria de Educacin y Bienestar Social). Many other agencies were represented at the meeting, including San Diego's South Bay Home Support Project (which is affiliated with Children's Hospital), Universidad Iberoamericana, and the Inst. De Profesionales de la Salud Para La Promocion Humana.

"It was an exciting, unique opportunity for us to develop new colleagues, as well as new research and clinical opportunities. Each participating campus invited key faculty, students, and alumni to attend the meeting, in the interest of having broad participation." Ferdman says.

And broad participation they had! About 100 people took part in six morning roundtable discussions on: 1) addiction and drug abuse prevention, 2) crime prevention, 3) domestic abuse prevention, 4) migrants and racism, 5) human rights, and 6) productivity in the culturally-diverse workplace. According to Guzman, they were asked to cover these questions in their discussions:

What are the main problems of needs in this area? And how can we collaborate in investigating and addressing the main issues? All discussions and later presentations took place with simultaneous translation so that those speaking only one language would not miss anything. In most of the groups, the early part of the discussion was spent on coming to a mutual understanding and defining terms. Complex human phenomena are not easily captured and summed up in words, and words often mean different things to different people. So establishment of a common understanding, if not total agreement, was a big part of the task for each group, in moving towards adoption of concrete plans and goals.

After a lunch served in a CETYS courtyard during which some relationships and mutually-discovered interests were pursued individually, participants reconvened to hear reports from each of the morning's discussion groups. What follows are some highlights from those presentations.

CRIME PREVENTION

The group recognized that the state cannot be the sole entity responsible for security. They defined three areas of crime control tactics requiring study and attention: prevention, frontal attack (repression), and the readaptation of criminals to social life. They discussed the fact that crime respects no borders, and set a goal of sharing information about the results of criminological studies, prevention programs being tried, and the outcomes of those programs for better cross-border coordination. Two ideas for possible projects included: the establishment of training programs in criminal behavior for police organizations and for teaching teachers to spot antisocial tendencies and prevent delinquency.

DOMESTIC ABUSE PREVENTION

This group looked at spousal and child abuse, and sexual assault. It was recognized that Tijuana has few programs aimed at educating men about these issues. Two ideas for possible projects included: programs to teach women about ways of living and communicating that would enable their children (particularly sons) to halt an intergenerational cycle of abusive behavior, and political action for legislative support of penalties and perhaps even mandatory school-site educational meetings for fathers. The group concurred that messages would have to be culturally relevant. The right kind of message for Latino men would be one that leads them to recognize their responsibility for creating of preventing abuse in the home. Another possible project would address the establishment of resources for people after abuse is discovered and reported, i.e., shelters, legal aid, education, child protective services, investigations. It was further suggested that U.S.-based collaborators assist with seminars and workshops in Mexico.