Construction of the new Texas Behavioral Health Center at UT Southwestern, the first state mental health hospital in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, is on schedule for its adult wing to be completed by late summer 2025 and its pediatric wing by early 2026.
Depending on the timing of state funds appropriated for its operations, the hospital could start treating adult patients as early as December 2025, said Hicham Ibrahim, M.D., associate vice president and chief medical officer of Ambulatory Services at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
UT Southwestern has partnered with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) to design and construct the facility as part of the state’s comprehensive plan to expand inpatient psychiatric beds. The project brings together the expertise of both organizations, along with community stakeholders, to create an enhanced mental health system for the region.
UT Southwestern and HHSC hosted a groundbreaking for the hospital in December 2022. The facility will have 292 beds – 200 reserved for adults and 92 for pediatric patients. It’s located at the corner of Medical District Drive and Harry Hines Boulevard near Zale Lipshy Pavilion – William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital, Children’s Medical Center Dallas and Parkland Memorial Hospital.
The closest state mental health hospital is currently in Terrell, more than 30 miles east of Dallas.
“In addition to providing much-needed access to inpatient care for those suffering from serious mental illness, this new hospital will provide an opportunity to develop innovative models of care and in parallel provide a training ground for the full spectrum of health care professionals needed for a comprehensive mental health workforce,” said Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky, President of UT Southwestern.
Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Legislature approved $282.5 million in 2021 for construction and design of the adult wing of the psychiatric hospital. Children’s Health generously donated $261 million to support the added construction of a pediatric wing, where UT Southwestern pediatricians will exclusively treat children and adolescent patients. Without this donation from Children’s Health, this new hospital would have no pediatric beds. In 2023, the Legislature approved an additional $102 million to complete construction.
“With one in three children in Texas experiencing a mental health disorder each year, the construction of the pediatric wing and development of appropriate mental health services are critical for the well-being of the children of our community,” said Chris Durovich, President and CEO of Children’s Health. “This collaboration with UT Southwestern and HHSC is an important partnership in our work to address the rising pediatric mental health epidemic.”
Since 2017, the Legislature and Gov. Abbott have appropriated more than $2.5 billion in funding for the replacement, renovation or expansion of state hospitals in Dallas, Amarillo, Austin, El Paso, Harlingen, Houston, Kerrville, Lubbock, Rusk, San Antonio, Terrell and Wichita Falls. Replacement facilities for the Austin State Hospital and San Antonio State Hospital opened in early 2024, with a total of 540 inpatient psychiatric beds.
“Texas is making an unprecedented investment in helping people with serious mental illness,” HHSC Executive Commissioner Cecile Erwin Young said at the groundbreaking for the Dallas hospital. “Throughout the state, we are expanding, renovating and rebuilding our state psychiatric hospital system from the ground up. When complete, this much-needed hospital will offer hope, healing and recovery for the most vulnerable Texans living in the surrounding metroplex.”
Over 3.3 million people in Texas – more than three times the population of Austin – had a mental health condition as of 2021, and 796,000 had a serious mental illness, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). Of the 314,000 Texans ages 12-17 who suffered from depression, 65% received no treatment in the previous year, NAMI said. According to the same report, 3,930 Texans’ lives were lost to suicide and 756,000 adults had thoughts of suicide.
To promote the health and healing of patients, the new hospital will include abundant natural lighting, several landscaped outdoor courtyards and an open-air balcony with tables. Dr. Ibrahim, also a UTSW Professor of Psychiatry, said a broad community engagement campaign was key to the facility’s design process. The design team sought input from patients, families, behavioral health providers and other community stakeholders and, from there, began creating a hospital with private patient rooms and bathrooms, as well as ample access to daylight and nature.
Dr. Ibrahim said the Texas Behavioral Health Center at UT Southwestern will provide several high-quality clinical programs that will be innovations in the state hospital system. The two most unique elements are a Medical/Psychiatric Unit , also known as a Complexity Intervention Unit , designed to deliver optimum hospital care to patients who have concomitant medical and psychiatric needs; and a Partial Hospitalization Program for individuals stepping down from inpatient care but still needing intensive, sustained support and therapy.
For more information about state hospital construction projects throughout Texas, visit the Changes to Texas State Hospitals page on the HHSC website.