88R7146 AMB-D
By: Springer S.R. No. 50
R E S O L U T I O N
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.