- Hello and welcome to Living in the Lehigh Valley, where our focus is your health and wellness.

I'm your host, Brittany Sweeney.

Veterans in the Lehigh Valley have a new behavioral health center that focuses on mental health.

The office opens in the Allentown area May 1st, but I had the chance to stop in South Whitehall Township before the doors open to patients.

Behavioral health services offered through the Allentown Veterans Affairs Clinic are moving to a new location on the fourth floor of the Roma Corporate Center on Cedar Crest Boulevard.

- This space is about 7,700 square feet, so it does give us some opportunity to expand the services, even for behavioral health in this location.

- Russell Lloyd is director of the Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center.

The Allentown VA Clinic is a satellite office of the VA Medical Center.

Lloyd says the local office serves about 1,700 patients needing attention for their psychological well-being.

- A lot of our veterans do have behavioral health issues related to their time in active duty military service, and that'll have an impact on their physical health as well.

Also has a very significant impact on their relationships and their interpersonal life.

- Working alongside Lloyd is the chief of community-based outpatient clinic service.

- I love working in the VA. - Dr. Aparna Tamaskar, who is based in Allentown.

- Veterans are very special.

You know, they have given so much to the nation.

And in return, they also got a lot of things, in terms of their lifestyle, their struggle and their hardships.

So, a lot of veterans I have seen, they have PTSD.

A lot of veterans, you can see depression, anxiety, a lot of other disorders like which definitely need attention and care, very closely - Tamaskar says the VA will use the old behavioral health services space at the VA's Hamilton Boulevard location to expand other specialties.

She adds The mental health needs of their patients has outgrown the space there.

- This is going to be a great opportunity to have a dedicated, comprehensive behavioral health setup.

So, is clinic will work as a comprehensive setup for the behavioral health.

It will have a multi-dimensional approach to take care of the veterans and provide these services.

The project is funded internally by Veterans Affairs, who also approved a plan to build a new VA clinic in Allentown, twice the size of the Hamilton Boulevard location.

- Roughly 9,000 veterans being served at the Allentown clinic right now.

And just because of the changing needs for health care of that patient population, we were really stretched for space.

- Lloyd says the expansion project is in its early stages.

The VA expects the Behavioral Health Office to accommodate the needs of veterans for about five years before the new Allentown VA clinic is complete.

After that, all of the services can once again be under the same roof.

That's it for this edition of Living in the Lehigh Valley.

I'm Brittany Sweeney, hoping you stay happy and healthy.