Workers at the closed Vermont State Hospital in Waterbury say they’ve largely been ignored as the state debates the future of its mental health system in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene.
Flooding during the storm forced the 54-bed facility to close. Since then, the state has been scrambling to find room for the patients who were displaced.
About a dozen psychiatrists, nurses, social workers and others who worked at the hospital gathered this week to say they think they should be moved back into Waterbury temporarily, and that the state should move as quickly as possible to build a new psychiatric hospital in north-central Vermont.
They say the state hospital provided a unique range of services needed by Vermonters suffering from the most severe mental illnesses.