Behavioral Health is Moving to New Relocatable

By Hospitalman Jeyzon Fernandez Jimenez
Public Affairs Staff / Editor
Robert E. Bush Naval HospitalNaval Hospital

Twentynine Palms’s Behavioral Health Clinic will be moving into a new temporary “Relocatable.”

The location of the clinic will be Bldg. 1658 R1, Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center (MCAGCC).

The move is currently planned for early August 2013.

Lt. Cmdr. Jonathan H. Locke, Medical Service Corps, a Clinical Psychologist from New England who arrived onboard in August 2012, currently works in Deployment Health as the Department Head.

Locke received his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) from Grinnell College in 1990, his Master of Science (M.S.) in counseling psychology from Northeastern University in 1994, and his doctorate in clinical psychology from Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology in 2003. Locke actively oversees the moving process of the Behavioral Health Clinic.

Why is the move important to patients at the hospital? Locke said that the move will make it easier for many behavioral health patients to go to their appointments.

Because mental health services will be offered at a new separate location, patients will gain the benefit of having a little more privacy.

Additionally, due to the increase of space at the new location, patients may have more treatment options. Parking may become easier for the patients as well.

The impact that this move would create on patients is that those having additional appointments at the hospital will need to allow more time in their schedules to travel to their other meetings.

Relocating will impact staff members by gaining much more space to work in and a bit more autonomy, but will also mean that staff members will not have access to the galley or the locker rooms at the hospital.

Furthermore, attending regular meetings at the hospital may become a little more challenging for the staff.

Future plans to again move, this time into a permanent infrastructure, are underway for year 2015.

When asked what services and / or programs do Behavioral Health currently offer to patients, Locke said, “The staff is planning on continuing to offer very similar services to what it has offered in the past.

These services include individual and group treatment, a variety of talk therapies, medications, crisis services, post deployment health re-assessments (PDHRAs), traumatic brain injury (TBI) evaluations, among others.”

Will the clinic expand such services and/or programs in the future? “We are looking into increasing the number of therapy groups we offer, and we will be switching the leadership of some of these groups between Mental Health and Deployment Health,” said Locke.

To avoid confusion and for clarification purposes, “Behavioral Health was divided into two smaller departments, now called Mental Health and Deployment Health. Mental Health is made up of primarily active-duty providers. Deployment Health is mostly compromised of civilians and has three components: The Post Deployment Health Re-assessment Program, the Traumatic Brain Injury Program and Counseling Services. The Deployment Health Department’s main purpose is to assist service members with conditions related to deployments, while Mental Health offers a broad range of services that complement those offered by Deployment Health,” said Locke.

For care during business hours, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., call the front desk at (760) 830- 2724/2935. In the event of an after-hours crisis, call 911.

The Behavioral Health Clinic also covers the Naval Hospital Twentynine Palms’s Emergency Medicine Department, which is open 24 hours and can be contacted at (760) 830-2354.