Parkview partners with VA hospital to provide mental health services

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) -  Parkview Health is partnering with the Fort Wayne VA Hospital to provide specialized mental healthcare for veterans in our area.

Parkview is committing $5 million to help renovate what will be the new VA mental health facility. This new facility will be housed in a vacant building on Parkview's Randalia campus where its Cancer Center used to be. That was moved up north to the new Parkview Regional Medical Center. The VA hospital is noticing an increasing need for mental health services. The director of the VA hospital, Denise Deitzen, said it increases by three to five percent every year.  Deitzen also said about one in five veterans doctors and nurses see at the VA is there for mental healthcare. The president of Parkview Health, Sue Ehinger, said they're excited to be a part of the solution.

"Being able to partner with the VA was probably the most important part of this. Take the building aside - how do we together work for more access to mental health services especially for our veterans who are so deserving of that special care," Ehinger said.

Parkview is leasing the building to the VA hospital for 20 years.  Construction on the new mental health annex is set to start this spring. Officials believe veterans can begin receiving care at the new facility in April of 2015.

Senator Dan Coats applauded the two hospital partnering together. “We all have a duty to support those who have sacrificed so much to protect and defend our country,” said Coats. “I applaud Parkview Health and the VA Northern Indiana Health Care System for answering that call and committing to provide the care and support our veterans need. Thanks to this partnership, Hoosier veterans will be able to access a modernized, outpatient mental health facility in Fort Wayne.”

Congressman Marlin Stutzman was at the press conference for the big announcement Monday.  He said, "From what we all know this annex will be much more effective, more cost efficient, and it's going to be right near the current VA facility so that our veterans know that it's just next door not like four miles down the road."