The Oklahoma City VA Health Care System (OKC VAHCS) is making it easier for Veterans in Oklahoma and North Texas to get the care they need.
With several new and expanded outpatient clinics opening soon, Veterans will have access to more services, closer to home.
These projects are all about delivering timely, high-quality care. The VA is adding and expanding services like primary care, mental health, dental, rehabilitation, specialty care, and diagnostics throughout the region.
“Expanding access to care remains one of our highest priorities,” said Wade Vlosich, Director of OKC VAHCS. “These new and expanded clinics reflect our continued investment in the health and well-being of the Veterans we serve. By increasing capacity and offering more services closer to home, we’re making it easier for Veterans to receive the care they’ve earned.”
One of those expansion sites is at the Broadway Extension
VA Clinic, located at 9400 Broadway Extension, Suite 300, in Oklahoma City.
A ribbon cutting ceremony was held Oct. 13 for the opening of the new addition.
This clinic is where Behavioral Health services relocated from the VA medical center near downtown Oklahoma City.
“So, this is a full-service mental health clinic for our Veterans,” Casey Zwirtz, Assistant Director of Operations said. “This is one of our domino moves to prepare us for our future expansions at the main facility. And so, what we’re doing is we’re taking a lot of our mental health services for outpatients and bringing them here, expanding services. This is our next phase of trying to expand and give more access to mental health care.”
Zwirtz said 70 Behavioral Health employees have relocated to the Broadway Extension VA, which offers everything from individual mental health therapy to group therapy.
“We also offer psychotherapy and various other mental health related services,” he said.
Zwirtz said taking care of your mental health is important for everyone.
“So, I think we do a really good job of making sure that veterans know that we’re here to help and to get them back to where they want to be mentally,” he said. “We’re trying to get them into our classes and get them into our sessions and we can help normalize the need for mental health, not just for veterans, but for everyone, that mental health is a need and we need to make sure that we’re supporting each other and giving people the resources they need to be successful in their day-to-day life.”
Zwirtz said the new Behavioral Services wing has 70 individual offices for their mental health providers to be able to meet with veterans and their family members if needed.
“We also have three group rooms for group therapy. And then
we have a couple different offices that are set up specifically for things like psychotherapy or cognitive therapy and then also with any type of brainwave and things like that that we might adhere to,” he said.
Zwirtz said the new clinic has one exam room used primarily for nurse intake.
“We have one exam room and it’s mainly for nurse intake clinics where we’re going to do a blood draw. So, if they need to get labs done, they can get them done here or we’ll do a physical exam here from a nursing standpoint just to make sure that they’re ready for their appointments. And then sometimes we’ll do drug screens and things like that if they’re in a program that requires them to stay clean or sober.”
Zwirtz said the VA has utilized various media outlets to get the word out about the new Behavioral Services clinic.
“So, we’ve done multiple tele town halls where we’ve had veterans from different locations throughout our catchment area where we’ve updated them on the opening of the clinic,” he said. “We’ve also sent out emails and gov delivery, which is our email service where we send out those notifications and then also tap into our local media to help notify them.”
Zwirtz said the new clinic is designed to make mental health access easier.
“This is our first mental health only clinic that’s outside of our main facility. So, this was exciting to be able to put this one together and get it to this step,” he said. “It’s providing the care that we need for our veterans in this area and being able to expand and grow our mental health care. And this clinic is going to provide a less stressful environment for our veterans to come into.”
For more information call the Broadway Extension VA main number at (405) 456-7200.
