Dallas VA hospital closes pysch ward after 4th vet suicide.

The Dallas Morning News reports that city’s VA Medical Center officially closed its psychiatric wing after the fourth mentally-ill veteran committed suicide this year. The hospital was rated the nation’s worst VA facility in a 1995 study, though a spokeswoman said that “more than $250,000 has been spent during the last six months to eliminate suicide risks” there. In November, CBS reported that “at least 6,256 US veterans committed suicide in 2005 — an average of 17 a day.”