Texas Health Arlington Memorial Expands Behavioral Health Services

ARLINGTON, Texas. Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital is expanding its mental and behavioral health services just as the CDC has released new data showing how urgently these services are needed.

The mother of a 16-year-old from Grande Prairie vouches for the effectiveness of these programs as a mother and as a mental health professional.

Her son Joel allowed Cecilia Mora to tell her story, about the day he called 911.

“His call to the police was more like a protest,” she said. “At this point, I don’t want to commit suicide,” she said of her son’s phone call with police a few months ago. “But I need help.”

He was in a new city, attending a new school, and his older brother had just left to join the Marine Corps. And he didn’t want to tell his parents how depressed he really was.

“He said he just didn’t know how to ask for help. He was ashamed,” Mora said of her son. “He didn’t know that we would look at him like he was weak. Because most of the time we don’t talk about mental health.”

The Texas Behavioral Health Center in Arlington offered Joel the counseling he needed. Texas Health Arlington Memorial Behavioral Health offers both inpatient and outpatient treatment programs for adults and adolescents.

“If you broke a bone, you would see a doctor, you would go to the hospital and get the treatment you need,” said Aliza Hirani, director of clinical services at the Texas Behavioral Health Center. “We can do the same for mental health. I want them to know that we’re here and that it’s time to start treating mental health as a key component of our physical health.”

Texas Health Arlington is expanding its behavioral and mental health programs. Expanded services include partial hospitalization programs, where patients have access to a nurse, doctor, and group therapy for five to six hours each weekday, but are not admitted overnight, and intensive outpatient care programs, with three-hour group therapy sessions three days a week.

“This expansion has been vital in providing even more individuals and families with the care and support they so desperately need to improve their mental health and wellbeing,” Hirani said.

And they’re expanding their programs just as the CDC reports that an estimated 22 percent of high school students have seriously considered attempting suicide in 2021. His survey of high school students “points to the need for urgent intervention,” the CDC said in a report.

The irony of Mora’s fate is that she works at the Texas Behavioral Health Center in Arlington. She is a nurse’s caretaker. But as a mother, she says the signs were hard to see.

“I was shocked because I do this for a living. But when it comes to home, it’s a completely different matter. You really don’t know what to do.”

But with the open house scheduled for Thursday night, mental health professionals would like to show you what they can do and how they helped 16-year-old Joel understand his emotions and get his life back on track.

“Now that I see him, he is happy, walking, leading an active social life,” his mother said. “He’s much better!”

And “best” is what they would like everyone to believe.

New services offered by the Texas Behavioral Health Center in Arlington include:

• Women’s Partial Hospitalization Program: One-on-one group therapy where women can address issues and challenges in a safe therapeutic setting, including postpartum depression, menopause, domestic violence, and sexual abuse.
• Women’s Intensive Outpatient Program: In-person or virtual group therapy for women to address issues such as postpartum depression, menopause, domestic violence, and sexual abuse.
• Intensive Adolescent Outpatient Program: Individual group therapy is offered from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm to help teens ages 13 to 17 struggling with issues such as depression, anxiety, bullying, abuse, trauma, or boundaries to balance school and their mental health, without sacrificing any of them. another.
• Adult Comorbid Disorder Treatment Program: Individualized group therapy designed for adults who struggle with both mental health and substance use problems.

The hospital continues to offer inpatient care, the adult mental health partial hospitalization program, and the adolescent partial hospitalization program.

The public is invited to an open day from 5:45 pm to 7:00 pm on Thursday, February 16 to learn more about mental health programs and meet the care team.

Participants may park in the South Garage and enter the Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital main entrance at 800 W. Randol Mill Road, where they will be directed by volunteers.