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Then and Now

Then & Now

The evolution of MSI & UTHCPC
     When the Harris County Psychiatric Center was dedicated on October 16, 1986, it marked the end of over 30 years of substandard inpatient facilities for persons with mental illness in Harris County.

     Until then, the only publicly-funded inpatient treatment for persons with serious mental illness were a 27-bed short-term ward at old Ben Taub General Hospital, and the Harris County Psychiatric Hospital—on the top two floors of Jefferson Davis Hospital on Allen Parkway, which was managed by the county and its Mental Health and Mental Retardation Authority (MHMRA).

     By the mid-1970s, a group of local psychiatrists worked with County Judge John Lindsay to find a solution to the situation and issued a crisis report in 1979. There were no public inpatient beds for children with mental illness and only 93 beds for adults, including beds at TRIMS, the Texas Research Institute for Mental Sciences — the state department of mental health’s (TDMHMR) research operation in the Texas Medical Center (TMC). The estimated need was at least 210 beds.

     Later that year, Lindsay made plans for the county to purchased the old Center Pavilion Hospital at Holcombe and South MacGregor, to house an inpatient psychiatric hospital, but TMC offered another site for the facility at the intersection of South MacGregor and Highway 288.

In January 1981, the public learned of plans by the TDMHMR and MHMRA to build a 200-bed regional mental health center, with plans originally developed by Joseph Schooler, M.D., the head of TRIMS. At the same time, Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby was being approached by for his support of appropriations to build the facility by both political and medical leaders. He conferred with Louis Faillace, M.D., chairman of the UT-Houston Medical School’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, who helped convince him of the importance of having the hospital affiliated with a medical school.

     In May 1981, the 65th Texas Legislature appropriated $12 million for the construction of a state facility, the Houston Psychiatric Hospital. The item called for TDMHMR to partner with Harris County in the construction of the facility, and stipulated that the state (TDMHMR) part of the facility was to be staffed by physicians from the UT-Houston Medical School.

In December 1984, ground was broken for the new hospital, and on June 15, 1985, the Texas State Legislature amended the Texas Education Code, giving the Harris County Psychiatric Center its name and authorizing it to be staffed and managed by the University of Texas, through the UT-Houston Medical School.

     Also that year, Texas legislators made a decision to close the Texas Research Institute of Mental Sciences (TRIMS). Dr. Faillace worked with the Health Science Center’s President Roger Bulger, M.D., and the UT Board of Regents to secure an agreement with the state to assume part of TRIMS’ function after it closed Aug. 31, 1985. Legislators agreed to give UT-Houston a reduced budget, opportunity to rehire some of the former staff, and TRIMS’ equipment. On Sept. 1, 1985, the former TRIMS became the UT Mental Sciences Institute (MSI) under the leadership of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Robert Guynn, M.D., a faculty member in the department played an important role in the transition process and soon thereafter was named chairman of the department – a position he retains to this day.
– By Fran Dressman and
Bryant Boutwell, Dr.P.H.

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