TACOMA, Wash. — Joint Base Lewis-McChord will soon be home to an $11 million facility funded by the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. At the future facility, known as the Intrepid Spirit Center, specially trained staff will focus on treating traumatic brain injury and psychological conditions.
The privately-funded clinic will feature the latest in brain treatment technology. Once it’s up and running, the Intrepid Spirit Center will be donated to the Department of Defense.
The new facility at JBLM will be the sixth center of its kind at military bases around the country. Three more are in the works, according to the not-for-profit organization behind the centers.
Treatment at the future Intrepid Spirit Center will be free for service members, and services will include everything from physical and psychological therapy to yoga, acupuncture and sleep analysis.
“The army has been actively, aggressively engaged in de-stigmatizing psychiatric and neuro-cognitive injury,” said Dr. Bret Logan of the Intrepid Spirit Center. “So the notion that ‘suck it up and drive on’ is something that the army has been actively working hard to change.”
The Pentagon says 22 veterans take their own lives every day — a tragic statistic the military cannot ignore and one officials are determined to end. Part of that effort starts with clinics like the one set to open at JBLM.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the center will take place at 10 a.m. Thursday.
