Tomah VA reopening psychiatric unit

State, nation have had problems with shortages

TOMAH, Wis. — Not enough psychiatrists and staff.

The Tomah Veterans Association Medical Center had that problem last year, forcing the facility to shut down its Acute Psychiatric Unit back in September.

Thanks to aggressive recruiting, however, the psych unit at Tomah will open up again next week.

“We did land an inpatient psychiatric provider, who is probably the most critical piece to being able to get the unit reopen,” Hospital spokesman Matthew Gowan said.

Gowan added that shortages in psychiatric specialists have been a state and national problem for some time. 

Tomah is expanding the acute unit from its previous five beds to a maximum of 11.