SALT LAKE CITY -- The Veterans Affairs Hospital of Salt Lake City is dedicating a new mental health building designed for healing mind, body, and spirit.
The new 38,000 square foot facility with 95 offices and seven group rooms. In 2011, the VA staff treated 11,500 veterans over 125,000 visits, according to a press release.
Veterans that attended the ribbon cutting ceremony said the best part of the new building is the extra efforts made to ensure the walls were nearly sound proof.
The center aims to help veterans that have experienced difficult things on the battlefield.
"It's extremely hard, it changes your life completely," said Stu Shipley, Vietnam veteran who has suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. "You have to want to get help and I never wanted to get help until it got to the point where I was extremely suicidal."
The facility will also serves as a designated mental health hub providing tele-mental health services to veterans throughout Utah, Colorado, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana.
