Confronting Mental Illness
UT Southwestern, Texas Health and Human Services Commission partner on new state psychiatric hospital for Dallas-Fort Worth
Texas ranks No. 33 out of 51 states and the District of Columbia in access to mental health care, according to a recent report published by the nonprofit Mental Health America. This is particularly evident in the lack of capacity for inpatient psychiatric care in North Texas.
Until now, a state-supported psychiatric hospital has been noticeably missing in Dallas-Fort Worth, the nation’s fourth most populous metropolitan area. People in need of care sometimes wait days or even weeks for a bed to become available, remaining in an emergency department or non-specialty health facility without receiving the comprehensive specialized care they need.
UT Southwestern is uniquely positioned and committed to confronting the growing mental health needs of our community and beyond.
UT Southwestern has stepped forward to help meet this need. Together with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC), the Medical Center is developing D-FW’s first state-funded psychiatric hospital, a critical step in satisfying the considerable and growing demand for inpatient mental health services in North Texas.
Last year the Texas Legislature appropriated more than $282 million to plan and construct a state psychiatric hospital in North Texas. As part of the interagency agreement with HHSC, UT Southwestern will take responsibility to lead the planning and design process, oversee construction, and ultimately operate the new facility.
“As a public institution, this commitment to help build the first state psychiatric facility in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex represents a critical step in efforts to address the acute and growing need for inpatient mental health services,” said Daniel K. Podolsky, M.D., President of UT Southwestern. “We are grateful for the trust and confidence that the state of Texas and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission have placed in us to help develop and operate this new hospital. Our faculty, researchers, and staff are looking forward to working with the region’s stakeholders to leverage the state’s investment in order to increase the availability of mental health care, advance the research needed to develop the next generation of treatments, and expand the mental health workforce.”
While details may evolve during the planning process, the hospital is currently envisioned as a 200-bed facility to be located on the UT Southwestern campus. The new facility will serve adults with serious, acute mental health problems as well as people being evaluated on behalf of the criminal justice system.
Beyond the exceptional care that psychiatric patients will receive, UT Southwestern’s leadership as a top academic medical center provides other important benefits. The hospital will afford researchers at UTSW an opportunity to interact with a large patient population that can advance voluntary studies to understand the causes of mental illnesses and improve treatments for conditions that can only be treated symptomatically today. In addition, UTSW researchers will examine current treatments to develop best-in-class protocols and collaborate with other mental health facilities to share those guidelines.
The hospital, in partnership with UT Southwestern Medical School, will enable more future psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, social workers, and other professionals to be trained, promoting workforce development in Texas and lessening a statewide shortage of mental health providers. Once construction is completed – as early as 2025 – Dallas will join other major cities, including Houston, San Antonio, and Austin, in what is currently an 11-facility network of state psychiatric hospitals across Texas.
UT Southwestern is uniquely positioned and committed to confronting the growing mental health needs of our community and beyond. The institution’s research advances – including the discovery of a biomarker for early psychosis and biomarkers that help predict the efficacy of antidepressants – will be game changers in the treatment of mental illness. But more discovery is still needed, and the new state psychiatric hospital will provide critical opportunities to advance new and improved therapies, as UT Southwestern trains future innovators in the area of mental health.
While hospital operations will be state funded, there will be philanthropic opportunities to support training and research activities as well as continuum of care services that aid transitions from inpatient to outpatient care.
“This represents such a huge win for the community,” said Hicham Ibrahim, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Associate Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Ambulatory Services at UT Southwestern, who will lead project management for the initiative. “We’re proud that UT Southwestern has been entrusted with this new venture, and we will do everything we can to ensure a facility that delivers on all its promises – namely, great care for an underserved patient population.”
Dr. Podolsky holds the Philip O’Bryan Montgomery, Jr., M.D. Distinguished Presidential Chair in Academic Administration, and the Doris and Bryan Wildenthal Distinguished Chair in Medical Science.
