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Facility planned
for vets
(March 2008
Issue)
By Pamela Berard
The Seven Hills Foundation, a non-profit health and human service
agency based in Worcester, Mass., has plans to build a residential
facility in the city for returning war veterans with traumatic brain
injury (TBI).
William Stock, vice president for government and community affairs
at Seven Hills says a meeting was planned in Washington, D.C., in
late February with Lucille B. Beck, Ph.D. a director of audiology
and speech pathology and Helena K. Chandler, Ph.D., a psychologist,
who head rehabilitation services for the Department of Veteran Affairs,
to discuss the project.
The facility is tentatively being called the Massachusetts Veterans
Neurological Rehabilitation Center and if things go as planned,
the center could open its doors within a year.
The Foundation purchased four acres of land in the city, Stock
says and they are working with an architectural firm to discuss
the development. As for the number of veterans the facility could
serve, the organization is "discussing somewhere between 12 to15,"
he says.
The Foundation has also signed a "memorandum of understanding"
with the UMass Medical Center to help provide healthcare and services
at the center.
The facility would provide physical, occupational and speech therapy
for returning war veterans from the Middle East who have suffered
traumatic brain injury. Seven Hills is engaged in a fundraising
effort to cover the cost of building the facility, while federal
funds would be sought for operating costs.
Traumatic brain injury affects some 20 to 25 percent of bomb-blast
survivors, according to published reports. Symptoms of TBI include
memory loss, headaches and mood disorders.
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