Breaking News-VA Hospital, Canandaigua/Suicide Prevention Program
Canandaigua Veterans Hospital will be developing a Suicide Prevention Program for returning veterans, a Residential Rehabilitation Center and a Nursing Home Facility, this from WHAM news:
Rochester, N.Y.) AP - The Veterans Center in Canandaigua is developing a suicide prevention program for returning war veterans that may serve as a model for treatment programs across the country.
(snip)
The Department of Veterans Affairs says the reorganization of the Canandaigua VA hospital will also include a new 120-bed nursing home, a new 50-bed residential rehabilitation facility and a renovated outpatient building.
A threatened closure of the Canandaigua site galvanized community activists and veterans over recent years. Working with local politicians, they saved the site from closure and found funding to increase the services it provides.
This is great news! Especially since the Army is having a 26-year high in suicide rates. And that’s before the soldiers come home and find out that the Republican/Bush idea of a strong economy (corporate fatcat buddies having good times) doesn’t include any sort of good job opportunities.
And don’t get me started on PTSD…
Why would our soldiers have PTSD when they were greeted as liberators? What, too much candy and flowers, or something?
This was enabled by a couple of things. Grassroots activists haunting local politicians and a Democratic Congress who is more interested in serving all the people rather than a select few. All leading to vulnerable incumbents in the 25th and 29th.
Remember - this VA was on the list of being closed or significantly reduced - beds moved to Buffalo during Randy and Walsh watch. People galvanized, the issue was picked up and like magic it turned around.
I guess the devil is in the details.
The treatment of veterans in this country is something that we all should be ashamed of, particularly the elected officials who supported this war and then abandoned our veterans when they needed the support of their country most. I’m talking to you, Randy. This is a step in the right direction, but the very fact that it is left to grassroots activists like Gene Symes to struggle as hard as they do to keep this facility open is a travesty in and of itself.