Former ICBH medical director found dead from apparent suicide
IMPERIAL — Dr. Álvaro Camacho, former Imperial County Behavioral Health medical director, died Monday from an apparent suicide at Sun Valley Behavioral Health Center, the city of Imperial announced.
At about 12 p.m., Imperial and El Centro police officers responded to a welfare check at the health center, 2417 Marshall Ave. Upon arrival, officers discovered a deceased male who was identified as Camacho.
Preliminary investigation indicated Camacho’s death was a suicide, although no further details were immediately available.
“Our hearts are saddened by this tragic loss to the Imperial Valley community,” a city of Imperial news release stated. “We send our deepest condolences to the family, friends and patients of Dr. Camacho during this difficult time.”
Camacho was the past Medical Director of ICBH and was currently serving as medical director for Behavioral Health Services at Clinicas de Salud del Pueblo. Camacho was also a resident psychiatrist at Sun Valley Behavior Health.
Camacho pioneered the integration of mental health and primary care to improve access to behavioral health services among individuals living in the Valley’s rural underserved communities, the city’s news release said.
According to Dr. Camacho’s biography on his official website, he was also a non-salaried assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at University of California, San Diego.
Camacho received several awards and fellowships, including the Lewis Judd Chairman’s Research Award, Developmental Grant from the UCSD HIV Neurobehavioral Research Center, the Minority Fellowship
Award from the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychiatric Foundation for advancing mental health care among Latinos living in rural communities, Hartford Foundation Center of Excellence for Latino geriatric patients, the National Institute of Mental Health Critical Issues in Latino Mental Health, Career Development Institute for Psychiatry from University of Pittsburgh, and Scholar of the Year from the American Heart Association 10-Day Seminar in Cardiovascular Epidemiology.
He had published more than 30 peer-review publications and was an active investigator in the National Institutes of Health/ National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos and the Multi-ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.
For more than 10 years, Camacho worked in rural underserved communities by the U.S.-Mexico border. He had been actively collaborating in research projects with faculty from UCSD, SDSU, UCLA, Mayo Clinic and University of Miami, as well as researchers from Colombia and Mexico, according to his bio.