Texas Health and Safety Code - HEALTH & SAFETY § 551.009. Hill Country Local Mental Health Authority Crisis Stabilization Unit

(a) In this section, “department” means the Department of State Health Services.

(a-1) The department shall contract with the local mental health authority serving the Hill Country area, including Kerr County, to operate a crisis stabilization unit on the grounds of the Kerrville State Hospital as provided by this section. The unit must be a 16-bed facility separate from the buildings used by the Kerrville State Hospital.

(b) The department shall include provisions in the contract requiring the local mental health authority to ensure that the crisis stabilization unit provides short-term residential treatment, including medical and nursing services, designed to reduce a patient's acute symptoms of mental illness and prevent a patient's admission to an inpatient mental health facility.

(c) The local mental health authority shall contract with Kerrville State Hospital to provide food service, laundry service, and lawn care to the local mental health authority operating a crisis stabilization unit on the grounds of the Kerrville State Hospital as provided by this section.

(d) The crisis stabilization unit may not be used to provide care to:

(e) The local mental health authority operating the crisis stabilization unit under contract shall use, for the purpose of operating the 16-bed unit, the money appropriated to the department for operating 16 beds in state hospitals that is allocated to the local mental health authority. The department shall ensure that the local mental health authority retains the remainder of the local authority's state hospital allocation that is not used for operating the 16-bed unit. The department may allocate additional funds appropriated to the department for state hospitals to the crisis stabilization unit.

(f) The department shall reduce the number of beds the department operates in the state hospital system by 16. The department, in collaboration with the local mental health authority, shall ensure that the 16 beds in the crisis stabilization unit are made available to other mental health authorities for use as designated by the department.