Office of Research & Development |
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Dr. Donald Myrick of the Charleston VAMC was interviewed by the Charleston Post and Courier about the center's new mental health research building.
The Charleston Post and Courier and other media outlets reported on the Dec. 8, 2014, opening of a new mental health research building at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in Charleston, S.C. Interim Under Secretary for Health Dr. Carolyn Clancy attended the ribbon cutting ceremony, and VA Deputy Secretary Sloan D. Gibson toured the facility on Dec. 5, before the opening.
The new $9.9 million, 16,000-square-foot facility includes five basic science labs, 27 treatment rooms, and three group therapy rooms. It will allow researchers to better collaborate on cutting-edge mental health treatments.
Dr. Donald L. (Hugh) Myrick, Charleston's associate chief of staff for mental health services, told the Courier, "When people get together, people talk. People start getting ideas, they start collaborating. Our genetics guy will talk to the PTSD guy and say, 'You're putting in this grant, we should put this genetic component into it or this imaging component to it.'"
And Dr. Peter Tuerk explained to the Courier that the new space is also more convenient for patients. Previously, Veterans who participated in mental health trials bounced around the hospital because researchers and labs were scattered on different floors. "Now, they can just come on in, have one nice experience here, one waiting room—much, much quicker turnaround," he said.
