Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP Maria Jackson, right, program director of St. Joseph Hospital's Senior Behavioral Health Unit, and hospital president John Jurczyk chat with U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-NH, during Hassan's visit to the hospital Tuesday. (Telegraph photo 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.

A Senior Health Center and a Geriatric Behavioral Health program are affiliated with the Elliot Hospital in Manchester, while the Frisbie Memorial Hospital “provides comprehensive geriatric mental health care to adults 65 and older,” but the hospital is in Rochester.

Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP St. Joseph Hospital president John Jurczyk responds to questions asked by U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-NH, center, and state Sen. Cindy Rosenwald, D-Nashua, during Hassan's tour of the hospital's Senior Behavioral Health Unit on Tuesday. (Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP)

On Tuesday, Jurczyk told Hassan that following the unit’s opening in January, hospital officials, including program director Maria Jackson and Andrea Erickson, the Chief Nursing Officer, found that many would-be patients were having a difficult time in getting referrals from their insurance companies.

“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.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-NH, right, looks over statistics shown her by Andrea Erickson, left, St. Joseph Hospital Chief Nursing Officer, and Maria Jackson, program director for St. Joseph Hospital's Senior Behavioral Health Unit, during Hassan's visit on Tuesday. (Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP)

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