The Department of Veterans Affairs is planning a phased closing of a VA medical facility which specializes in inpatient and residential mental health treatment in Kalamazoo.
In an article in the Detroit News, Joe Schwarz, lecturer in public policy, criticized the decision.
"The powers that be in Washington who made this decision have probably never seen the place," said Schwarz, a Vietnam veteran and surgeon who lived at VA medical center campus as a boy when his father was chief of psychiatry at the hospital.
"They say it needs some upgrading. Well, any place needs some upgrading. They've got a really valuable, valuable facility on their hands. The patients love it because it's so accessible from all directions. Lots of patients from northern Indiana come up and patients from all over Michigan, especially for the psychiatric services."
