About Us History |
Border Region Behavioral Health Center is a non-profit, tax-exempt contract agency of the state of Texas that is governed by a nine-member board of trustees appointed by the county commissioner courts of Webb, Zapata, Jim Hogg, and Starr Counties.
The Laredo State Center was established as a facility of the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation in 1979 by the 66th Texas Legislature to provide mental health and mental retardation services and supports to the citizens of Webb, Jim Hogg, Starr, and Zapata counties. Previously, from 1969 to 1979, the center operated as a mental health outreach clinic of the Rio Grande State Center, headquartered in Harlingen.
Laredo State Center’s administrative and outpatient offices were located in a former Air Force-Base Hospital. The 73rd Texas Legislature approved bond funding for construction of a modern facility through a rider to the General Appropriations Act. Groundbreaking ceremonies for the new facility were held in January 1996, on 14.5 acres of land provided in a trust to the Center by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 1982. The Center was built to be culturally sensitive and designed to accommodate growth in the number of persons served.
On September 1, 2000, the Laredo State Center transitioned into a community center. Community Centers such as Border Region MHMR, were established in local communities throughout Texas to provide mental health and mental retardation services to persons most in need of services – especially those individuals identified as priority population i.e. primarily at risk of hospitalization or State School placement; or exiting from one of these facilities). The driving principal was that persons with mental illness and persons with mental retardation should be educated and live, work, and play in the same setting as all Texans – in their community near family and friends.
In 2011, Border Region MHMR changed its name to Border Region Behavioral Health Center. Today, the Center employs 270 people to serve 3597 clients with a budget of 13.9 million dollars. Border Region Behavioral Health Center is designated as a Local Mental Health Authority and a Mental Retardation Authority. This designation reflects the delegation of the State’s authority for planning, policy development, coordination, resource allocation and resource development for and oversight of mental health and mental retardation services in the local service area.
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