SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 50

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 State of Texas, 88th 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 from the Texas Senate.

Springer

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President of the Senate

I hereby certify that the above Resolution was adopted by the Senate on January 24, 2023.

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Secretary of the Senate

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Member, Texas Senate