MIDLAND Officials from across the state gathered at the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center Friday for the long-awaited groundbreaking of the Permian Basin Behavioral Health Center.
Medical Center Hospital President/CEO Russell Tippin said the goal is to take the first patient in early 2025.
The roughly 170,000-square foot building will be located on 54 acres donated by Diamondback Energy just south of the WNPAC, Russell Meyers, former president/CEO of Midland Health said. Meyers is now chief development officer of Midland Memorial Foundation.
The facility will have 100 beds and Meyers said part of it will be two stories. Some $40 million in state funding was obtained for the project, but fundraising continues.
The groundbreaking was going to be held on the building site, but it was moved inside due to windy conditions. A long rectangular sand pit was set up for the golden shovels to be dug into by Odessa, Midland and state officials.
“This facility will support those in West Texas who require the assistance and will finally make behavioral healthcare accessible in the Permian Basin,” Rep. Tom Craddick, R-Midland, said.
Craddick said there are more than 500,000 Texas adults who live with severe and persistent mental illness and one in five adults in Texas suffer from mental health issues each year.
Craddick said the landmark movement of what happened between the two hospitals in Odessa and Midland is “unbelievable.”
Craddick said he’s being asked by other state lawmakers and people around the country about how this was done because they want mental health facilities, too.
Shelby Landgraf, wife of Rep. Brooks Landgraf, R-Odessa, substituted for her husband Friday.
“I’m so honored and so grateful to be here today to be celebrating this (monumental) occasion with all of you,” Shelby Landgraf said.
She said this began in 2021 when Meyers and Tippin approached Craddick and Brooks Landgraf.
“Brooks jumped into action headfirst and was so thrilled to work and to fight for the needed funding, $40 million in state funding, to kick this off. Today’s groundbreaking for the Permian Basin Behavioral Health Center is a huge milestone for mental health right here in the Permian Basin. As Rep. Craddick mentioned, it’s no secret that our area does not have what it needs and what it deserves when it comes to mental health funding and facilities. Both Midland and Odessa lack the bed space, the facility space and health care providers to meet the needs here in our community,” Landgraf said.
“But all that changes today with this groundbreaking. This facility is desperately needed. Countless individuals put in so much hard work to make this a reality, to make this behavioral health center, to secure the funding for the Permian Basin,” she added.
Ector County Sheriff Mike Griffis said the faculty is long overdue.
“We’ve had many, many individuals that have been incarcerated in our jail that had been directed by a judge to go to a facility and no beds available statewide,” Griffis said. “This will help in that respect and also our street mental health officers who have to deal with the mentally ill individuals that may be involved in incidents. They can get these individuals to a facility a lot quicker, a lot safer right in our own community. It’s a win-win. Hopefully, we have enough beds and more beds in the future if we need it.”
Griffis said the number of people that officers encounter who need mental health assistance varies. They have their own mental health officers as does the police department.
He thanked everybody involved for bringing the project this far.
“It can be two or 10 in one day. There are times we have to make two trips, three trips in a 24-hour period to San Angelo to take people down there that get committed. It varies a lot and I hope we don’t fill it up within a short amount of time,” Griffis said.
Tippin said what happened Friday shows the commitment of the people of the Basin to do what’s right for all the patients.
He said they probably get four or five people a day that are in crisis in the emergency room.
“This is the biggest unmet medical need in the Permian Basin, so having something like this come together is going to be huge. It’s going to be a big deal,” Tippin said.
The event was emceed by Tatum Hubbard, chief of staff/vice president of communications and marketing at UTPB.
