The state of Uvalde is home to the state of Uvalde, where the horrific mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in May 2022 killed 19 children and two teachers and caused untold disruption to a community still struggling to recover. , plans to build a 32-bed behavioral health campus.
Gov. Greg Abbott said in a news release Monday that construction is expected to begin this summer and the facility is expected to open in about a year.
“When Texans are safe and healthy, our communities in both urban and rural areas are stronger. We continue to work to expand access to health resources,” Abbott said.
The center is designed to house children and adults, with both groups having access to an “extended observation unit” for people who need long-term care, the governor's office said.
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The campus will be located in Uvalde, about 130 miles west of San Antonio, but will primarily serve rural areas in 32 counties. The seven-acre site, about five miles from the Robb Elementary School massacre site, was donated by the city of Uvalde.
Immediately after the shooting, Mr. Abbott focused on the mental health factors in people who commit mass deadly violence and led efforts to limit the legal purchase of military-style rifles like the one used by the Robb Elementary School shooter. I resisted. A bill to raise the legal age to purchase such firearms from 18 to 21 was proposed in 2023, but was never considered for a floor vote in the Texas House or Senate.
A Uvalde gunman bought the weapon shortly after his 18th birthday after his sister, who was still a minor, refused to buy one on her behalf.
But Congress included funding for action centers in the state's two-year budget cycle that began in September.
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The Uvalde campus will be operated by the Hill Country Center for Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities under contract with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.
Abbott and other top state leaders have often cited the mental health of the forces behind numerous mass shootings in Texas over the past decade, according to the nonprofit Mental Health America. A 2021 report ranks Texas 44th in the prevalence of mental illness among U.S. states. Ability to access care. Texas ranks 41st when it comes to the prevalence of mental illness and youth's ability to access care.
Weeks after the Uvalde shooting, the state made an “initial investment” of $5 million for a resiliency center to meet the community's mental health needs, including psychological first aid and crisis counseling for residents and first responders. assigned. It also provided $1.2 million for school counseling and crisis intervention programs.
Abbott initially dismissed the shooting as heroic after a U.S. Department of Justice report released in January in Uvalde examined state and local law enforcement's response to the shooting. It turned out that organizational flaws had been exacerbated by organizational chaos and confusion, although it had been drawn up and then withdrawn after new details began to surface. Seventy-seven minutes passed before police confronted and killed the gunman.
The federal report also accused government leaders of providing misleading and inaccurate information in the months that followed, and said Uvalde's family suffered from a lack of resources for trauma treatment. .
