Bill Text: TX SR50 | 2023-2024 | 88th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Commemorating the centennial of North Texas State Hospital.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2023-01-24 - Reported enrolled [SR50 Detail]
Download: Texas-2023-SR50-Introduced.html
| 88R7146 AMB-D | ||
| By: Springer | S.R. No. 50 | |
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| WHEREAS, The North Texas State Hospital has provided mental | ||
| health services to the public for a century; and | ||
| WHEREAS, In 1922, the first patient was admitted to the | ||
| facility, known briefly as the Northwest Texas Insane Asylum before | ||
| its designation as the Wichita Falls State Hospital; it was well | ||
| equipped for its day, offering surgery, radiology, laboratory | ||
| analysis, electrotherapy, and hydrotherapy; by 1930, a staff of | ||
| 7 doctors and nearly 100 attendants served a population of more | ||
| than 1,500 patients; most personnel lived on the 940-acre campus, | ||
| which encompassed a farm that made the community almost entirely | ||
| self-sustaining during the Great Depression; and | ||
| WHEREAS, The hospital expanded to nearly 100 buildings by the | ||
| 1940s, and during wartime labor shortages, a reduced staff worked | ||
| long hours to care for approximately 2,400 patients; conditions | ||
| improved, and in 1951, an annex to serve geriatric patients was | ||
| opened in Vernon; the number of residents decreased over subsequent | ||
| decades with the advent of effective psychotropic medications and | ||
| access to community programs and nursing home care; the hospital | ||
| was able to increase its service area from 23 to 53 counties in the | ||
| 1980s, and Vernon State Hospital was redefined as the state's | ||
| forensic psychiatric facility; and | ||
| WHEREAS, In the late 1990s, the Texas Department of Mental | ||
| Health and Mental Retardation undertook efficiency reforms and | ||
| combined the administrations in Wichita Falls and Vernon as North | ||
| Texas State Hospital; today, it includes the Wichita Falls campus, | ||
| the main Vernon campus, and the Vernon-South Campus; NTSH provides | ||
| inpatient care for those referred by the local mental health | ||
| authority, as well as forensic psychiatry and competency | ||
| restoration services for adolescents and adults in the criminal | ||
| justice system; and | ||
| WHEREAS, Committed to excellence in mental health care, North | ||
| Texas State Hospital has made a positive difference in the lives of | ||
| countless people, and its 100th anniversary provides a fitting | ||
| opportunity to recognize its many contributions to the communities | ||
| it has served; now, therefore, be it | ||
| RESOLVED, That the Senate of the 88th Texas Legislature | ||
| hereby commemorate the centennial of North Texas State Hospital and | ||
| extend to all those associated with the hospital sincere best | ||
| wishes for the future; and, be it further | ||
| RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be | ||
| prepared for the hospital as an expression of high regard by the | ||
| Texas Senate. | ||
