SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - Ashley Metoyer and Jo Jo Lee are looking to bring more support to students on UC San Diego campus.
“This, for me, is a passion and a calling,” Metoyer said.
“I really see the need of serving the student community,” Lee said.
The service these two are providing to the student community is a new mobile mental health crisis team on the university’s campus.
It’s called Triton CORE and it is helping those who are experiencing a non-violent behavioral or mental health crisis.
“It’s really important to have services that come to you. Often times having to go to something is a constraint whether it’s a transportation constraint, a financial constraint. And with Triton CORE, we come to our students,” said Metoyer, who is the Triton CORE team manager.
“It’s more about we can offer those resources to you door-to-door,” added Lee, a Triton CORE clinician.
The program started in early January with two full-time staff members and a part-time San Diego County Consultant. Calls for assistance will be fielded by campus police dispatch to make sure there aren’t any safety concerns. If it is safe, then a member of the Triton CORE team will go to that student.
One of those team members is Lee, who happens to be a UCSD alum.
“I really see that it’s an opportunity to serve the student not waiting for them to come to the counseling center, be that person to break that ice and showing to that student that hey we are here,” Lee said.
Metoyer told ABC 10News they’ve worked a variety of stakeholders on campus to really make Triton CORE feel like it’s truly there for the students.
“It’s important that our student of color, our minoritized and marginalized communities; they have folks who have had lived-in experience, who look like them, can advocate for their needs,” Metoyer said.
