VA Providence invests in mental health services with new facility
As demand grows for mental and behavioral health services for veterans, so do services.
"We currently have a little over 10,000 of our veterans enrolled in mental health services here in Providence," said Lawrence Connell, Director of the VA Healthcare System. "We want to be the gold standard for where veterans get their care."
This, in light of a recent congressional report that showed an 85% increase in mental health services through the Department of Veterans Affairs.
On the campus of the Providence VA Medical Center, it's all about growth.
"Every year we put in about 85 to $100 million into new construction and improvements here to the VA medical center," said Connell.
Last year, a new building dedicated to veterans with mental health challenges went up.
"So this is some of our more severe mentally ill veterans with larger struggles who prior to that were in a trailer and this has been a really nice message for them to go from a trailer to this beautiful new space where it shows that they're important, they're valued," said Dr. Jennifer Lambert, Associate chief of staff for mental health and behavioral science services at the Providence VA.
And now they're breaking ground on phase two.
"It's going to be about 14,000 square-feet of additional space. We're investing $14 million in this new building. And it's going to be kind of like a one stop shop for mental health services," said Connell.
"The new phase is going to be for our health care for homeless veterans program and our PTSD program as well as our readjustment counseling program so veterans that are all post 9/11 and also for neuropsychology which helps our older veterans," said Lambert.
This second phase is expected to be completed by the end of 2024.
And it's not the only project in the works.
"A little over a year from now we'll break ground on a brand new emergency department which will double our capacity as well as a brand new MRI tower which is going to give us two state-of-the-art MRI's here, just here in Providence," said Connell.
"They've made some great sacrifices and this is a benefit that they've earned and we want to make sure that they get the best care that they can possibly get."