Burke Center gets $1.66 million

New facility will provide assessment and treatment

LUFKIN — The Texas Department of State Health Services has awarded $1.66 million to the Burke Center for a psychiatric emergency program.

The money, combined with funding from local hospitals, county governments and help from the T.L.L. Temple Foundation in finding a facility in Lufkin to use for the program, means Lufkin will soon have the only psychiatric emergency facility in the Deep East Texas region.

"The East Texas community has really come together to help solve a problem that effects us all," said Susan Rushing, CEO of the Burke Center. "It is the strength of that local united effort that helped us get this grant, and we want to continue working together to make it a reality."

Rushing said not having a nearby mental health facility has created stress on law enforcement and local emergency rooms as well as patients and family members who need help.

The new facility will provide psychiatric assessment and treatment. This includes treatment in emergency situations which would help take some pressure off local emergency rooms. It would also provide law enforcement with a place to put anyone they apprehend who appears to have psychiatric problems.

"Our counties, hospitals, peace officers and EMS are overburdened with people experiencing mental health emergencies," Texas State Representative Jim McReynolds stated in a press release.

"A recent study by the Department of State Health Services confirms this. The application made by the Burke Center is the product of our coming together to help resolve some of the problems we daily experience in our part of the state. It will benefit our whole region."

Each year in Lufkin alone there are 300 mental commitments, according to Lt. David Young with the Lufkin Police Department. The Angelina County Sheriff's Department transports each of these people, some all the way to El Paso, according to Young.

"This will be a major help to law enforcement in this county and a major time saver," Young said. "Having a facility that we can place a few of these people in will be a big help."

It's been 10 years since East Texas has had any way to help those with psychiatric problems. Since then those who need help have to travel long distances to Houston, Dallas, Louisiana or even El Paso to get the help they need, according to Rushing.

Mayor Jack Gorden hopes that the Lufkin facility will just be a starting point and that East Texas will see more of these facilities as time goes on.

"This will be a much needed facility that will serve the people in our community that are least able to help themselves," Gorden said. "It's a huge blessing for these people that need the help as well as the communities that need to be offering that type of support."

The Burke Center provides mental health, mental retardation, substance abuse treatment and early childhood intervention services to a twelve county region in East Texas.