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UPDATE: AFTER SUICIDES, DALLAS VA PYSCH WARD
REOPENS WITH NEW PLAN -- VA Medical Inspector
recommended the removal of suicide risks such as
metal
trash cans, linen hampers and geriatric chairs in
the showers.
Dallas VA
For background on this story (with backlinks),
click here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfAPR08/nf041908-4.htm
Story here...
http://www.dallasnews.com/s
haredcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-
vaopen_20met.ART.State.Edition1.4691f03.html
Story below:
-------------------------
After suicides, Dallas VA Medical Center
psychiatric ward reopens with new plan
By SCOTT FARWELL / The Dallas Morning News
sfarwell@dallasnews.com
The Dallas VA Medical Center reopened its psychiatric ward Monday after
retrofitting the 68-year-old unit to minimize the risk of patient
suicides.
Four mentally ill men took their lives earlier this year – two of them
while being treated in the 51-bed psychiatric ward – prompting
administrators to stop admitting patients.
Two teams of federal investigators reviewed the ward during the 45 days it
was closed, according to a statement by Susan Poff, a spokeswoman for the
hospital.
The VA Office of Medical Inspector visited the ward April 16 and told
hospital administrators "the mental health program itself is adequate,"
according to the release.
They recommended the removal of suicide risks – metal trash cans, linen
hampers and geriatric chairs in the showers.
Ms. Poff could not be reached Monday to answer questions.
A team from the VA Office of Mental Health
Services evaluated the psychiatric unit on April 22. It recommended adding
staff and installing new video cameras and monitors, among other
improvements to the ward.
"Actions on many of these environmental issues ... have been completed or
will be implemented in the near future," Ms. Poff wrote.
The nursing staff has increased, and the hospital added another
suicide-prevention coordinator.
Two veterans – Chris Demopolis and Pat Ahrens – committed suicide earlier
this year within days of being released from the government hospital on
Lancaster Road in southeast Oak Cliff.
 Two
others – Larry Johnson and an unidentified man – hanged themselves in the
third-floor ward in the intervening months.
The decision to close the psychiatric unit at the Dallas VA came as
lawyers in San Francisco for two veterans groups accused the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs of providing poor care to service members
with mental illnesses.
Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth are seeking a
federal injunction requiring improved mental health services and processes
for dealing with stress-related cases.
They say 18 veterans commit suicide each day in the United States and
1,000 attempt suicide each month, and the numbers are increasing as
veterans return from war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
-------------------------
posted by Larry
Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
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