John D. Dingell VA Medical Center

Description:

About the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center, Detroit, Michigan

Since 1939, the Detroit VA Healthcare System has been improving the health of the men and women who have so proudly served our nation. In 1996, the medical center moved from its original location in Allen Park, Michigan to the current location in Detroit. Located in the Midtown area of Detroit, it’s our privilege to serve your health care needs in any way we can. Services are available to more than 330,000 Veterans living in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and St. Clair counties. This population represents approximately forty-four percent of the Veteran population in the lower peninsula of Michigan.

Community-Based Outpatient Clinics

In addition to our main facility in Detroit, we offer services in two community-based outpatient clinics. These clinics are located in:

Pontiac, Michigan
Yale, Michigan

Mental Health

If you qualify for VA health care, you can get high-quality mental health services as part of your benefits. You may also be able to get care for certain mental health problems even if you don’t have VA health care.

The Mental Health Service at the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center strives to provide compassionate, evidence-based, high quality mental health care to all Veterans encompassing the full range of psychiatric disorders and psychosocial stressors. We provide multidisciplinary consultation, evaluation, and treatment for difficulties with mood and anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, substance use disorders as well as provide a full array of services for Veterans who are homeless or have other significant psychosocial problems.

Veterans are supported in Mental Health Homes where interprofessional teams work together to ensure Veteran-centered care is provided at all times. In addition, we are a prominent teaching site for the Wayne State University School of Medicine and the Wayne SOM Department of Psychiatry and Neurobiology. In this capacity, we train medical students, psychiatry residents, psychology and social work interns, nurse practitioner and physician assistant students as well as nursing students. Of note, we were recently awarded a highly prestigious training grant that allowed us to increase the number of psychiatry residents and psychology interns in our outpatient department.

The Mental Health Service is also actively involved in research. We have prominent and well-funded basic and clinical researchers on our staff. Our Veterans benefit from this as it ensures that we are providing gold-standard, evidence-based care supported by our own research. Our services are provided through a number of different sections and programs, including but not limited to the following:

Acute Psychiatric Services: We provide 24-7 psychiatric services in the Emergency Department and have a 28 bed inpatient psychiatric unit for those Veterans requiring a higher level of care to address their needs.
Primary Care-Mental Health Integration: We provide integrated mental health care services co-located and collaborative with primary care.
Mental Health Intake Service: We have a robust 5 day/week intake service in which Veterans are given a comprehensive psychosocial assessment and a treatment plan is developed that guides the long-term care.
General Mental Health Clinic: We have a large and active GMH clinic that provides psychopharmacological, psychotherapeutic, case management and care management services.
Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Service: We have a comprehensive substance use disorder service that encompasses the full spectrum of care including an Opioid Treatment Program, Suboxone management, Outpatient Rehabilitation Program, Ambulatory Alcohol Detoxification, Smoking Cessation Classes and Hepatitis C Education
PTSD Clinical Team: We have a multidisciplinary team of therapists and psychiatrists who have been trained in the two most evidence-based treatments for PTSD
PRRC: The Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Recovery Center is a multidisciplinary program for those veterans needing more intensive support as they recover from mental illness and reintegrate into the community.
CWT: Compensate Work Therapy is an vocational rehabilitation program that assists veterans in developing the skills necessary to gain and maintain competitive employment in the community
Neuropsychology/Diagnostics: The MH service has a full complement of diagnostic services including a neuropsychological testing and evaluation.
Homeless Program: The Detroit VAMC has one of the largest homeless programs in VISN 11. It encompasses a number of programs from Healthcare for Homeless Veterans and a Veterans Community Resource and Referral Center (VCRRC) to HUD-VASH supportive case management services for those in independent housing to transitional Housing services within our Grant per Diem and Contract Residential programs to support navigating the criminal justice system via our Veterans Justice Outreach program.
Mental Health Residential Recovery Treatment Program (MH RRTP): Our MH Residential Recovery Treatment Program, known as the Domiciliary or “Dom” is a free standing residential treatment program for Veterans who are homeless and have significant mental health issues.
Military Sexual Trauma: In both civilian and military settings, service members can experience a range of unwanted sexual behaviors that they may find distressing. These experiences happen to both women and men. The Detroit VAMC has a comprehensive MST program.