News : Senator Ernst to visit Virginia Gay Hospital

Senator Ernst, Mike Riege, Mark Mossman, and Melissa Smith in Washington last year

Senator Joni Ernst will visit Virginia Gay Hospital in Vinton to meet with staff and administration on Friday, February 5th. We appreciate Senator Ernst’s interest in improving access to mental health care services and learning more about Virginia Gay’s effort to include mental health in primary medical care delivery.

Virginia Gay is slated to break ground on a new $5.5 million dollar clinic building at its Vinton campus in the spring of 2016. One goal of the expansion is to provide primary care providers with assistance helping their patients suffering from mental or behavioral health issues.

“Many members of our community have felt the devastating after-effects of loved ones that have died of suicide. Those are the big, public traumas we all feel”, Mike Riege, Virginia Gay CEO recently said. “Because some 45% of those who die of suicide have seen their primary care physician in the month preceding their death, and because in rural America most people rely on their primary care provider to also be their mental health provider, these deaths leave deep and lasting wounds in our staff as well as the families. But underlying the problem…..what we’re seeing on a daily basis, are the effects of depression, prescription and non-prescription drug abuse, other addictions, and deeply emotional interpersonal conflict. The professionals of Virginia Gay are already dealing with these problems, but now we hope to support them with services the new clinic space will allow us to offer.”

Mike went on to say that Virginia Gay has been extremely impressed and pleased with the response from Senator Ernst. “The senator and her staff have taken an active interest in what we are trying to do and we’re very much looking forward to her visit.”