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Oregon VA facility cuts beds, focuses on rehab and reintegration

By Associated Press
Published: April 23, 2017, 2:34pm

MEDFORD, Ore. — Local Veterans Affairs officials have had their hands full for the past year, changing the culture of the Southern Oregon Rehabilitation Center and Clinics from a home for aging soldiers to a mental health and substance abuse treatment facility.

The change was mandated by new federal regulations. Already, officials have seen progress.

Between March 2016 and March 2017, the facility’s graduation rate has jumped from 55 percent to 80 percent, The Mail Tribune, a Medford newspaper, reported. That result is thanks in part to new evidence-based practices and treatment programs, said Michael Weld, the chief of residential care.

The Southern Oregon Rehabilitation Center and Clinics is the last of the large residential VA facilities to undergo a redesign. In September the facility reduced the number of beds from 525 to 366.

Still, VA officials say they expect to serve as many as 1,250 — compared with about 1,100 in the last fiscal year — thanks to an improved admissions process and by allowing veterans to participate in more than one treatment program at a time.

“Before that, people sat around with too much time on their hands and figured out how to fill it in ways that weren’t social and healthy,” he said.

The White City facility first opened as a residential facility in 1949, but it was converted into a treatment facility in 1995. It is currently the largest free-standing treatment facility in the country.

“It went from being a place to live if you had no other resources to an environment where there were clinicians and treatment was being provided,” Weld said.

No one was displaced as a result of the downsizing or the construction, Weld said, adding that the facility has never run at capacity. As of Wednesday morning, only 132 of the beds at were occupied.

Ashley Hanson, a 36-year-old Army veteran, arrived at the Southern Oregon Rehabilitation Center and Clinics in February with only the clothes on his back — a Hanes T-shirt, a jacket and a pair of jeans.

He had been homeless since Dec. 21 and under the influence of drugs and alcohol for much longer. He started using drugs and alcohol at the age of 13.

“I lost everything because of my substance abuse issues,” he said. “I let some people in my life that I shouldn’t have.”

Hanson completed the 27-day substance abuse program at the Roseburg Veterans Affairs Medical Center before transitioning to the White City facility to continue his treatment and participate in a program for homeless vets.

“I was 40 pounds lighter Dec. 21 and had four substances in my body, and I’ve been sober ever since,” he said proudly. (Saturday marked the four-month anniversary of his sobriety.)

The Southern Oregon Rehabilitation Center and Clinics gave him additional clothes, his own room, a paid job on campus and extracurricular opportunities such as leather work classes and hiking excursions.

“The VA has a really holistic approach,” Hanson said. “I have a care coordinator, a rec therapist, a nutritionist and a spiritual strength class with the chaplain.”

“Everybody is just really, I don’t know,” he said, breaking down. “It’s incredible.”

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