Hospital dedicates mental health unit to honor Beck

LANCASTER — Antelope Valley Hospital dedicated its Mental Health unit to the late psychiatrist Dr. John C. Beck, on Tuesday, on what would have been Beck’s 87th birthday.

Beck’s widow Sharon Beck, AV Hospital CEO Ed Mirzabegian, Dr. Roger Girion and Palmdale Mayor Steve Hofbauer attended an intimate ceremony at the hospital to honor Beck for his contributions to the Antelope Valley’s Mental Health Community.

Beck died April 16 at his Palmdale home.

He is credited with starting the mental health unit within the hospital in 1971, hospital officials said. He saw a great need, and an even greater lack of mental health services available in the Antelope Valley.

Beck took immediate action, and approached the hospital to instate a local and permanent mental health unit. Today, an expert team of psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses, therapists, mental health technicians and licensed clinical social workers take an interdisciplinary approach to assemble individualized programs tailored to each patient’s specific needs.

“Since starting in 1971, the mental health unit has grown to include 30 beds, 35 professional staff, and seven physicians to assist this vulnerable population,” Mirzabegian said in a statement. “Thousands of patients have been seen right here in the Antelope Valley, due to Dr. Beck’s vision for this (mental health) unit.”

Beck was born on Sept. 7, 1934, in Ord, Nebraska. He graduated from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston in 1956. After an internship, transitional year at Truman Medical Center-West in Kansas City, Missouri, Beck enlisted in the Army as a captain, completing his service at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. After three years in

the Army, Beck left for his residency in psychiatry at the University of Maryland, and finally chief resident at UCLA Medical Center.

Beck’s professional accomplishments include service as an instructor in clinical psychiatry at the

Neuropsychiatric Institute at UCLA; medical director at Sacred Heart Lodge, a psychiatric hospital in El Monte, and medical director of Antelope Valley Center for Child, Adolescent, and Family Guidance.

PHOTO COURTESY ANTELOPE VALLEY HOSPITAL Sharon Beck (left), Dr. Roger Girion and Antelope Valley Hospital CEO Edward Mirzabegian participate in a ceremony, Tuesday, dedicating the hospital’s Mental Health unit to Beck’s late husband, Dr. John C. Beck.

PHOTO COURTESY ANTELOPE VALLEY HOSPITAL This is the dedication plaque honoring Dr. John Beck at Antelope Valley Hospital’s Mental Health unit, which was dedicated to Beck during a ceremony, Tuesday.