New mental health facility will provide care to Borderland veterans

Rep. Beto O’Rourke and other local and military officials break ground for a new Veteran’s Affairs mental health facility Wednesday morning.

The facility is part of a years-long collaborative effort by O’Rourke and local veterans, community health providers and government officials to address the quality of El Paso’s V.A. system. O’Rourke commissioned an independent report on El Paso’s V.A. system in 2014 which found El Paso veterans were forced to wait an average of two month for mental health treatment, with more than a third never receiving care.

The facility will prioritize care for service-related mental health conditions, especially PTSD; a condition from which 11 percent to 20 percent of veterans suffer, according to the Department of Veteran’s Affairs.

The facility will also provide care for substance use disorder and monitored treatment.

It will serve more than 7,000 veterans who live in the Borderland.

The facility is scheduled to open in 2019.