The Texas Health and Human Services Commission held an informational tour of the current North Texas State Hospital on Tuesday, October 10 to discuss plans for the new one they are planning to build.
The construction of a new North Texas State Hospital will begin during the summer of 2024 to replace the current one. The new one is expected to be done in the fall of 2027.
The new hospital will be built behind the current one and have updated facilities.
The $452 million project will consist of 200 beds: 24 maximum security, 136 forensic non-maximum security, 24 adolescent, and 16 civil.
“The legislature saw that we needed the change for some of these facilities,” North Texas State Hospital Superintendent, Albert Ragland said.
“Most of these buildings out here are aged and it’ll give us a better opportunity to serve Texans who have a mental illness,” Ragland said.
The new hospital will also feature state-of-the-art therapeutic spaces in a secure environment for patients.
It will also include separate spaces for adult patients and adolescents.
“It’s going to be a game changer in how we do mental health,” Superintendent Ragland said.
“The patients will have their own bathrooms, they’ll have their own shower area, it’ll have better stuff for the staff, it’ll just be more conducive for us to treat patients and get them the help they need,” Ragland said.
Patients in the facility take classes where they can achieve skills that can be used when they are discharged.
“In the food handlers class they’re able to get their food handlers card and then actually when they are discharged they can actually work in like a United Supermarket, or at a Burger King or something like that,” North Texas State Hospital Director of Central Rehab Services, Thom Langley said.
“We’ve actually had some patients that actually have been discharged with their food handlers and actually got a job,” Langley said.
The plans for the current hospital are still being discussed once the new one is fully built.
Source: News Channel 6
