The James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital is starting two major expansion projects in the greater Tampa Bay region. Officials broke ground on a mental health center in Temple Terrace on Tuesday and construction will begin on an outpatient clinic in Lakeland on Thursday.
The 137,000-square-foot mental health facility will consolidate a number of behavioral health services into one location, including general therapy, post-traumatic stress disorder treatment, suicide prevention and substance abuse treatment.
It will also include 60 beds for inpatient rehabilitation services and feature programs that address the needs of specific populations including women, senior citizens and homeless veterans.
The center will replace and expand on three smaller mental health programs on and off the Tampa VA's main campus.
The goal is to make it easier for veterans who require multiple types of care, according to David K. Dunning, executive director of the James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital.
“It's very rare that a veteran has one issue if they're seeing mental health between homelessness and substance abuse and all those other issues,” he said.
Dunning spent more than 30 years in the Army and said he has had to sit down with families to inform them when soldiers died by suicide.
“Just watching that pain across the table and knowing there are things we can do to where that family doesn’t have to go through that pain; and that veteran, we can bring him back in and contribute to the community,” said Dunning.
Having the center in a location away from the main campus will also give veterans experiencing mental health issues more privacy, added Dunning, as some veterans worry there is a stigma associated with asking for help.
U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, attended the groundbreaking and says the project is important because research shows veterans are more likely than civilians to experience serious depression and PTSD.
“So, we know we need to do more to support their mental health, and with this new facility and clinic we're going to take a very important step to do just that,” she said.
A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for the Lakeland clinic on Thursday. The outpatient facility will be about six times the size of the VA’s existing facility in that community and will offer primary care and some specialty services.
Officials say construction on both clinics should wrap up next year, with doors opening to patients in 2024.
The hospital is also preparing to open a new bed tower at the main hospital in Tampa and a clinic in New Port Richey this year.
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