Lawmaker Unveils Vision for Austin State Hospital
State Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, on Thursday proposed creating an "MD Anderson of the brain" on the site of the troubled Austin State Hospital, a psychiatric facility that has been plagued with staff shortages, crumbling facilities and a failure to meet federal health standards.
“The state must do something about the Austin State Hospital,” Watson told a crowd of higher education leaders and health care advocates at a downtown Austin hotel. "I call being worst an opportunity."
A 2015 study from the Texas Department of State Health Services, which oversees state hospitals, identified the Austin campus as one of five facilities that were beyond repair and should be replaced. Last year, Medicare and Medicaid inspectors cited the Austin State Hospital twice in one month for nursing shortages and restraint violations, according to the Austin American-Stateman.
The proposal comes at a time of uncertainty the state's 10 psychiatric hospitals. Many advocates for people with mental illness have called on the state to build new facilities, but such a proposal would be costly.
Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2016/09/22/lawmakers-mental-health-advocates-improve-austin-s/
