200-bed facility set to open in fall 2025
Permian Basin Behavioral Health Center held an official ground-breaking ceremony in April inside the Wagner Noel Performing Arts Center. Construction is now beginning on the facility.
Construction is beginning on the Permian Basin Behavioral Health Center, a facility that will profoundly impact the communities of Midland and Odessa and improve the lives of generations of West Texans. The bulldozers and tractors soon to clear mesquite and move dirt near the intersection of Highway 191 and FM 1788 represent the culmination of almost a decade of West Texans working together toward a single goal of improving access to mental health care in the area.
In March 2016, a team from Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute conducted a study of mental health care in Midland and the surrounding areas. The assessment came back with alarming results. Mental health issues affected approximately one-third of Midlanders. Resources were especially scarce for low-income and uninsured patients, as the community mental health care system had capacity to treat fewer than half of adults in need and only 11 percent of children needing mental health care.
The COVID pandemic highlighted the lack of mental health care available across Texas and spurred the state legislature to allocate funds for mental health care. In the past two years Texas has committed $126.7 million in funding for the construction of a mental health facility between Midland and Odessa, thanks to Reps. Tom Craddick of Midland and Brooks Landgraf of Odessa and Sen. Kevin Sparks of Midland.
Permian Basin Behavioral Health Center held an official ground-breaking ceremony in April inside the Wagner Noel Performing Arts Center. Construction is now beginning on the facility.
Private donors, including the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation, Scharbauer Foundation, FMH Foundation, Permian Strategic Partnership, and Beal Foundation, helped bridge the gap between state funds and the projected cost of more than $200 million.
Located near the Wagner Noel Performing Arts Center on land donated by Diamondback, the Permian Basin Behavioral Health Center will be a 225,000-sf comprehensive mental health facility. Designed to meet the needs of Midland, Odessa, and the larger Permian Basin, the center will feature 200 inpatient beds, outpatient services, a crisis center, education center, and professional offices. Serving patients of all ages, the PBBHC will be the new home for fellows and residents of Texas Tech University Health Science Center of the Permian Basin’s Department of Psychiatry. The continuum of care offered at the facility will include stabilization for patients with mental health emergencies, competency restoration, intensive outpatient and inpatient diagnostic and treatment services.
The Permian Basin Behavioral Health Center, a joint venture of Midland Health and Medical Center Hospital, is expected to open in November 2025.