Senator Hassan Tours St. Joseph Hospital’s New Senior Behavioral Health Unit

Senator Hassan at St. Joseph Hospital (left) and Sub Zero Nitrogen Ice Cream (right) in Nashua.

NASHUA – In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan toured St. Joseph Hospital’s new Senior Behavioral Health Unit in Nashua to discuss the importance of expanding access to mental and behavioral health resources, particularly for older Granite Staters.

Senator Hassan also visited Sub Zero Nitrogen Ice Cream in Nashua, a veteran-owned business that was started after the owners were inspired by seeing the Sub Zero Ice Cream product on ABC’s Shark Tank.

See below or click here for highlights in the Nashua Telegraph on Senator Hassan’s visit to St. Joseph Hospital:

Nashua Telegraph: Sen. Hassan tours St. Joseph Hospital’s new Senior Behavioral Health Unit, discusses mental health funding with hospital officials

By Dean Shalhoup

NASHUA — U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-NH, got a first-hand look Tuesday at St. Joseph Hospital’s Senior Behavioral Health Unit, a 24-bed, specially designed facility within the hospital that served as a backdrop for a discussion with hospital leaders on the need to expand access to mental and behavioral health resources.

The facility opened early this year following an intensive, three-month top-to-bottom renovation of a largely unused section of the hospital, according to president John A. Jurczyk.

“We know that behavioral health has been underfunded for a long time,” Hassan said, adding that she and other office-holders on board with finding solutions are “trying to aim at where the funding needs to be.”

Despite being the most populated area in the state, the southern section has few options for older adults who struggle with behavioral and mental health issues, the group agreed.

[…] “We had about 100 denials in the first six months,” Jurczyk said. He said that the trend gradually turned in the right direction, thanks to assistance from Hassan’s office and that of New Hampshire’s senior U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.

Other ways in which the state’s Congressional Delegation has assisted the hospital, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, includes a $12.5 million federal grant from COVID-19 relief packages that Hassan helped become law.

In addition, St. Joseph Hospital was the recipient of $150,000 in Nonprofit Security Grant Program funds, which are earmarked for security-related projects such as upgrading the systems that control the building’s entrances and exits, and bringing in teams of experts to train hospital employees on how to best respond to safety-related incidents that could include the need to deal with anything from an unruly patient or visitor up to an active-shooter scenario.

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