The State Of Mental Health In Texas

The legislative committee room was jam-packed on Feb. 18 as Chairman Four Price (R-Amarillo) called to order the first hearing of the House Select Committee on Mental Health. Touted as one of the most important committees this interim, legislative leadership, county officials and stakeholders have been eager to begin the process of identifying how much money has been allocated, who receives the funding, where the gaps in services are and, essentially, what kind of bang Texans are getting for the buck?

The Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) and the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) started the hearing by providing a lay of the financial land, giving the committee an understanding of the state of mental health in Texas.

In 2015, the 84th legislature appropriated approximately $3 billion across 18 state agencies for the provision of mental health services. This doesn’t include the money received from the federal government to supplement services through the Medicaid 1115 Transformation Waiver. HHSC  confirmed the inclusion of federal dollars could raise the amount by another $2-3 billion.

Of the $3 billion appropriated by the state, approximately $300 million was sent to DSHS for mental health crisis services. It includes nearly $128 million in new mental health funds to priority areas identified by the “The Big Five” partnership of the Texas Association of Counties, Sheriffs’ Association of Texas, Conference of Urban Counties, County Judges and Commissioners Association and the Texas Council of Community Centers. These priority areas included outpatient treatment services, alternatives to hospitalization and psychiatric inpatient beds.

House Speaker Joe Straus appointed the Select Committee to review all agencies, funding, processes, continuity, needs and evaluations of mental health service provision throughout the state of Texas.

“We owe it to taxpayers to make sure the system is as effective and efficient as possible,” Straus said in a statement last fall regarding the committee. “The state’s approach to mental health affects everything from our hospitals to our schools to our jails, and that’s why this committee’s work is so important.”

All testimony presented at the hearing is available online.

The goal of the Feb. 18 hearing was to gain insight into the depth and scope of the issue of mental illness in Texas; future hearings will be of particular interest to counties and include testimony from the criminal justice agencies.

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