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BROCKTON VA PLAN TO SHIFT VETERANS CRITICIZED
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Substance abuse patients to joint
mentally ill in lockdown ward.
Story here...
http://ledger.southofboston.com/
articles/2007/03/06/news/news02.txt
Story below:
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Hospital plan to shift veterans criticized:
Substance abuse patients to join mentally ill patients
By SUE REINERT
The Patriot Ledger
Some lawmakers and veterans’ advocates are up in arms over a Veterans
Administration plan to move some substance abuse patients at the VA
hospital in Brockton to a locked unit for mentally ill veterans.
The shift, which would last for two years, comes as experts predict that
returning Iraq war veterans will need more mental health services from
the VA healthcare system.
Veterans Administration officials said alcohol detoxification patients
in Brockton will still get treatment but they will be housed with
mentally ill veterans during two years of construction.
But Quincy veterans services agent Henry Bradley said veterans fear that
the 28-bed detox unit, the only one on the East Coast that does not
combine substance abuse patients with mentally ill veterans, won’t
reopen after the construction project ends.
‘‘What they want to do is to get everybody out of there, and then when
you need detox, send you to a locked psychiatric unit,’’ Bradley said
yesterday. Staff in the program say that veterans ‘‘need the
camaraderie’’ of an unlocked unit to recover, Bradley said.
Rep. Barney Frank, D-Newton, alerted by Bradley and hospital workers,
said yesterday he will oppose the plan if the VA carries it out. ‘‘It
will be very troubling - a denial of service to people,’’ he said.
Frank said VA officials last week told his staff that they have put the
project on hold because they don’t know whether they will have enough
beds to handle demand during construction.
But Susan MacKenzie, associate director of the Boston VA healthcare
system, said officials still plan to begin construction this fall. The
VA did agree to reconsider its plan to treat detox patients with
psychiatric patients permanently, she said.
Told of this, Frank said he will seek clarification of the conflicting
statements. He will fight any plan to close the alcoholism treatment
unit, he reiterated.
Anestis Kalaitzidias, an aide to Rep. William Delahunt, D-Quincy, said
some veterans have told him they would not seek substance abuse
treatment in a psychiatric unit because of the stigma of mental illness.
The state’s congressional delegation will closely monitor the VA’s plan
to make sure no one is turned away, Delahunt spokesman Mark Forest said.
MacKenzie said officials ‘‘will ensure that anyone who presents to us
with a need for care will receive care in a safe environment.’’
The hospital often has empty detox and psychiatric beds and accepts vets
from other VA hospitals, she said. In turn, Brockton patients can go to
VA centers in Providence or Bedford ‘‘if we’re at full capacity’’ in
Brockton, she said.
However, Bill McClay, a night nurse at the Brockton detox unit who is
mobilizing opposition to the plan, said the unit often doesn’t have
enough beds on weekends.
‘‘It’s a crisis situation in the community for detox beds,’’ McClay
said. ‘‘Every weekend we call 18 other detox programs and they are all
booked.’’
One weekend last year, McClay said, workers had to tell a veteran to
apply for a bed at a non-VA center on the following Monday. The man set
fire to himself in a field the following week and died, he said.
The $1.5-million rebuilding project will modify four psychiatric wards
of 28 beds each to remove features that ‘‘could be a potential suicide
risk to patients,’’ MacKenzie said.
Officials plan a series of changes to accommodate psychiatric patients
as workers repair each psychiatric ward.
The changes involve switching mentally ill patients from a
less-restrictive residential unit to the empty detox ward. That frees up
28 beds for patients from each ward under construction, MacKenzie said.
The detoxification unit includes 14 acute-treatment beds and 14 beds for
patients who have improved and are preparing to go to a less intensive
residential facility.
The acute patients will go to psychiatric beds, while the others will
move to the residential program, MacKenzie said.
McClay said addicted veterans will get little treatment besides
medication on the highly restrictive psychiatric wards.
Now, newly-arrived patients who need acute addiction treatment get hope
from seeing those who have improved, McClay said.
Detox patients are entitled to the least restrictive setting, McClay
said. He said he has collected more than 1,800 signatures from former
patients on petitions opposing the closure.
Sue Reinert may be reached at
sreinert@ledger.com .
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Larry Scott --
