UT Southwestern Medical Center has been selected to operate the Texas Behavioral Health Center, the first state behavioral health hospital in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The facility in Dallas’ Southwestern Medical District on Harry Hines Boulevard is expected to start accepting patients early in the summer and will include almost 300 inpatient beds, with 200 dedicated to adult patients. Children’s Health made a $261 million donation to include an additional 92 inpatient beds for pediatric patients, making it one of the largest inpatient pediatric facilities in the country.
Project Scope and Workforce
The new center could require as many as 1,600 new employees, with virtually all being new hires, according to Dr. Daniel Podolsky, president of UT Southwestern Medical Center. UT Southwestern has been involved since the project’s beginning, tapped by the legislature to lead planning, design, and construction, and was recently selected to operate the facility. The project is part of the state’s plan to expand inpatient behavioral health care, which began almost a decade ago. Since 2017, lawmakers have approved more than $2 billion to replace and renovate the state’s psychiatric hospitals.
Innovative Care Models
The hospital will include capacity for “interventional psychiatry,” which encompasses new and developing treatment types showing promise for accelerating treatment responses. The Texas Behavioral Health Center will offer the first “partial hospitalization program” in Texas, allowing patients who no longer require around-the-clock care to receive ongoing intensive treatment. Podolsky stated this approach would “hopefully get better outcomes in reducing readmissions and transitions of patients to really remain in the community setting over the long term.”
Without adequate inpatient beds, patients with serious mental health issues often become stuck in emergency rooms or jails. Podolsky noted that “the jail ends up being the largest mental health care facility because of the lack of ability to transfer those individuals to an inpatient setting.” The hospital will also invest substantially in workforce pipeline development and pediatric behavioral health training, helping address the “significant shortfall we have as a state,” according to Podolsky.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.keranews.org/health-wellness/2025-12-29/ut-southwestern-state-behavioral-health-hospital-dallas