Why a $34 million, 32-bed behavioral health campus is breaking ground in summer in Uvalde
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
The state of Texas will build a 32-bed behavioral health campus in Uvalde, where a horrific mass shooting in May 2022 at Robb Elementary left 19 children and two teachers dead and inflicted untold turmoil on a community still struggling to recover.
Construction is scheduled to begin this summer and and the facility is expected to open about a year later, Gov. Greg Abbott said in a news release Monday.
“Our communities — urban and rural — are stronger when Texans are safe and healthy, and the State of Texas continues working to expand access to critical mental health resources to ensure Texans in every community get the support they need,” Abbott said.
The center will be designed to accommodate children and adults, and both groups will have access to "extended observation units" for people who require longer-term care, the governor's office said.
More: Six mass shootings and 90 dead. What has Gov. Abbott done and has it been enough?
The campus will be located in Uvalde, about 80 miles west of San Antonio, but will serve a largely rural 32-county region. The seven-acre site, about 3 miles from the massacre at Robb Elementary, was donated by the city of Uvalde.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Abbott focused on the mental health component of people who perpetrate deadly violence on a mass scale, and resisted efforts to restrict the legal purchasing of military-style rifles like the one the gunman used at Robb Elementary. Legislation proposed in 2023 that would have raised the age from 18 to 21 to legally purchase such firearms, was never considered for a floor vote in the Texas House or Senate.
The Uvalde gunman purchased his weapons just after his 18th birthday after being rebuffed by his older sister to buy guns on his behalf while he was still a minor.
The Legislature did, however, include funding for the behavior center in the state's two-year budget cycle that began in September.
More: Uvalde families reject conclusion, find new report on school shooting 'disrespectful'
The Uvalde campus will be operated by Hill Country Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Centers under a contract with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.
Even as Abbott and other top state leaders have often cited mental health among the forces behind the numerous mass shootings in Texas over the past decade, a 2021 report by nonprofit Mental Health America rated Texas 44th among U.S. states for the overall prevalence of mental illness and the ability to access care. For the prevalence of mental illness and the ability to access care among youth, Texas' ranking was 41st.
In the weeks after the Uvalde shooting, the state allocated $5 million as an "initial investment" in a resiliency center to meet the community's mental health needs, including psychological first aid and crisis counseling for residents and first responders. It also provided $1.2 million for school counseling and crisis intervention programs.
A U.S. Justice Department report unveiled in Uvalde in January into the state and local law enforcement agencies' response to the shooting — which Abbott originally portrayed as heroic before walking it back when new details began to surface — found systemic failures compounded by disorganization and chaos that allowed 77 minutes to go by before police confronted and killed the gunman.
The federal report also faulted government leaders for providing misleading and inaccurate information in the months that followed and said the Uvalde families were left to suffer by a lack of resources for trauma care.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Uvalde behavioral health campus to serve children, adults
