Recently, officials and community members were gathered together at the Rusk State Hospital’s grand opening ceremony in Rusk, Texas. The event, hosted by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, showcased the $200 million renovations made to the facility. Since 2017, Governor Abbott and the Legislature have approved approximately $200 million in funding for the construction of the state hospital.
Abbott was pleased with the newly renovated Rusk State Hospital. Especially since the project would facilitate the state’s objective to provide more mental health services to patients in East Texas. Abbott mentioned that the mental health of citizens was a top priority in Texas. He also said that since he became Governor, the state has allocated over $25 billion to expand mental health services. Therefore, he chose to declare it as an emergency item during the 2019 legislative session.
Featured amenities at the newly renovated Rusk State Hospital
The Rusk State Hospital situated at 805 North Dickinson Drive is a three-story, 227,368-square-foot patient complex. The renovated facility features a 100-bed non-maximum security unit as well as an expanded 100-bed maximum security unit. Therefore, the 200-bed unit has increased the number of available maximum-security unit beds at the hospital from 40 to 100. But the hospital’s overall capacity will still remain the same.
Officials highlighted primary design features at the new Rusk State Hospital: single-person rooms, abundant natural light, and outdoor spaces for healing. Patients will experience therapeutic, recreational, and social activities to ease their transition to life beyond the hospital.
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Additionally, the complex provides amenities like a theatre, music room, beauty salon, canteen, library, gym, greenhouse, and teaching kitchen. There will be two groups of patients at the facility, categorised as either Recovery Intervention Outreach or non-maximum security patients. According to the officials, each group will consist of 100 patients and they will never intersect with each other.
The executive commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, Cecile Erwin was grateful to the project’s investors and partners. He said the new state-of-the Rusk State Hospital building can now give patients the help they need thanks to their support.
