Crocker: We do not have enough state mental health facilities for kids and adolescents in the RGV

Good morning everyone. I’m Terry Crocker. I’m the Chief Executive Officer of Tropical Texas Behavioral Health. 

We are the local mental health authority for Cameron and Hidalgo and Willacy counties, and we are one of 38 other centers across the state similar to us.

We have grown to be about the fourth largest in the State of Texas, which helps demonstrate the amount of need for the types of services we provide in the Rio Grande Valley. 

I’m so pleased to see this hospital coming to the RGV. It will have some of the most profound impact on the behavioral health services system in the Valley’s history. 

I’ve been CEO now for almost 22 years at Tropical. When I started at Tropical, we were sending, on average, 45 people every single month out of the Valley for inpatient psychiatric care, to places like San Antonio State Hospital, Austin State Hospital, and others even further away.

Those people had to be transported by law enforcement. There was impact there, with those law enforcement officers being taken off the job and tied up for way too long of a time. 

Rio Grande State Center, our state mental health facility in Harlingen, is a cornerstone of what we do But they only have 54 beds locally for an acute level of care to serve the entire RGV, (which) as Dr. (Carlos) Cardenas mentioned, (has s population of) about 1.4 million people. Well, by comparison, San Antonio is about one 1.4 million people. They have 300 state mental health facility beds (compared) to our 54, a significant barrier to care for the Valley.

Because of the partnership with inpatient private psychiatric facilities like the ones at DHR, and because of funding from the State of Texas, we have been able to get those numbers way, way down comparatively, and we’re very, very proud of that. But (the) provision (of) and access to a state mental health facility level of care still remains. 

And today our partners at DHR take a huge step forward to eliminating that disparity to care that has existed (for) way too long. 

I do want to say to our state officials that are here today and other interested parties, our advocates, I still note that we don’t have state mental health facility levels of care for kids and adolescents in the RGV. That’s a glaring need in our service system, and I encourage all of us to continue pushing for that. 

This new facility will dramatically change the behavioral health care field landscape for the better. It will lure clinical providers to our area. It will serve as an anchor to those we are educating and training locally. It will increase the volume of the Rio Grande Valley in matters related to behavioral health. And command (will be) seen at all tables where such decisions are being made. 

Today is a good day for the RGV. It will certainly be a great day when this facility gets its doors open for business. 

Thank you to DHR for taking this challenge and Tropical Texas Behavioral Health continues to stand beside you and enhance our partnership as the Valley’s behavioral health care infrastructure. Thank you.

Editor’s Note: The above commentary was provided by Terry Crocker at a groundbreaking ceremony for a new DHR Health Behavioral Hospital, to be built in Pharr, Texas. Crocker is CEO of Tropical Texas Behavioral Health. 

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