| 1 | 1 | | 88R7146 AMB-D |
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| 2 | 2 | | By: Springer S.R. No. 50 |
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| 3 | 3 | | |
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| 4 | 4 | | |
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| 5 | 5 | | R E S O L U T I O N |
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| 6 | 6 | | WHEREAS, The North Texas State Hospital has provided mental |
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| 7 | 7 | | health services to the public for a century; and |
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| 8 | 8 | | WHEREAS, In 1922, the first patient was admitted to the |
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| 9 | 9 | | facility, known briefly as the Northwest Texas Insane Asylum before |
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| 10 | 10 | | its designation as the Wichita Falls State Hospital; it was well |
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| 11 | 11 | | equipped for its day, offering surgery, radiology, laboratory |
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| 12 | 12 | | analysis, electrotherapy, and hydrotherapy; by 1930, a staff of |
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| 13 | 13 | | 7 doctors and nearly 100 attendants served a population of more |
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| 14 | 14 | | than 1,500 patients; most personnel lived on the 940-acre campus, |
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| 15 | 15 | | which encompassed a farm that made the community almost entirely |
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| 16 | 16 | | self-sustaining during the Great Depression; and |
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| 17 | 17 | | WHEREAS, The hospital expanded to nearly 100 buildings by the |
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| 18 | 18 | | 1940s, and during wartime labor shortages, a reduced staff worked |
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| 19 | 19 | | long hours to care for approximately 2,400 patients; conditions |
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| 20 | 20 | | improved, and in 1951, an annex to serve geriatric patients was |
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| 21 | 21 | | opened in Vernon; the number of residents decreased over subsequent |
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| 22 | 22 | | decades with the advent of effective psychotropic medications and |
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| 23 | 23 | | access to community programs and nursing home care; the hospital |
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| 24 | 24 | | was able to increase its service area from 23 to 53 counties in the |
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| 25 | 25 | | 1980s, and Vernon State Hospital was redefined as the state's |
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| 26 | 26 | | forensic psychiatric facility; and |
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| 27 | 27 | | WHEREAS, In the late 1990s, the Texas Department of Mental |
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| 28 | 28 | | Health and Mental Retardation undertook efficiency reforms and |
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| 29 | 29 | | combined the administrations in Wichita Falls and Vernon as North |
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| 30 | 30 | | Texas State Hospital; today, it includes the Wichita Falls campus, |
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| 31 | 31 | | the main Vernon campus, and the Vernon-South Campus; NTSH provides |
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| 32 | 32 | | inpatient care for those referred by the local mental health |
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| 33 | 33 | | authority, as well as forensic psychiatry and competency |
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| 34 | 34 | | restoration services for adolescents and adults in the criminal |
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| 35 | 35 | | justice system; and |
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| 36 | 36 | | WHEREAS, Committed to excellence in mental health care, North |
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| 37 | 37 | | Texas State Hospital has made a positive difference in the lives of |
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| 38 | 38 | | countless people, and its 100th anniversary provides a fitting |
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| 39 | 39 | | opportunity to recognize its many contributions to the communities |
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| 40 | 40 | | it has served; now, therefore, be it |
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| 41 | 41 | | RESOLVED, That the Senate of the 88th Texas Legislature |
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| 42 | 42 | | hereby commemorate the centennial of North Texas State Hospital and |
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| 43 | 43 | | extend to all those associated with the hospital sincere best |
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| 44 | 44 | | wishes for the future; and, be it further |
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| 45 | 45 | | RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be |
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| 46 | 46 | | prepared for the hospital as an expression of high regard by the |
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| 47 | 47 | | Texas Senate. |
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