Before September of 2000, Texas Panhandle MHMR was actually two organizations: Texas Panhandle Mental Health Authority (TPMHA) and Amarillo State Center (ASC). Texas Panhandle Mental Health Authority served adults with chronic mental illness and adolescents with emotional disturbances in the upper counties of the Texas Panhandle. Amarillo State Center served mentally retarded citizens residing in the Panhandle. TPMHA employed approximately 160 staff, and ASC employed approximately 450. These two organizations merged in September of 2000, becoming Texas Panhandle Mental Health Mental Retardation.
Texas Panhandle Mental Health Authority (TPMHA)
The City of Amarillo appointed the original Board of Trustees in March of 1966. The name of the organization was Amarillo Community MHMR Center, and it served only Potter and Randall Counties. In September of 1973, the Center reorganized in order to expand service coverage to the upper twenty-one counties of the Panhandle. The Center’s name was changed to Texas Panhandle Mental Health Authority in 1988. The agency established offices in Dumas, Borger, Perryton, Pampa, Hereford, Clarendon and Amarillo in order to serve residents in all twenty-one counties.
Amarillo State Center (ASC)
In 1966, Amarillo was selected as a pilot project to demonstrate the feasibility of training persons with mental retardation in their community. Construction began in 1966 on land donated by the Harrington Foundation in the Harrington Regional Medical Center, and and completed in 1967. The Amarillo State Center for Human Development began serving clients in twenty-three counties of the Texas Panhandle.
A system of satellite offices were established in Pampa, Borger, Childress, Tulia, Dumas, Hereford, Perryton, and Wellington to provide day care, training, preschool, prevocational, and vocational training.
(Picture from early 1970's expansion of the Amarillo State Center)
On June 19, 1983, the Legislature changed the name of Amarillo State Center for Human Development to Amarillo State Center. As part of the transition process, the local service area was realigned to include the same counties as Texas Panhandle Mental Health Authority.
In 2000, with the merger of TPMHA and ASC, Texas Panhandle Mental Health Mental Retardation was formed. TPMHMR serves persons with mental illness, mental retardation and developmentally delayed children from birth to three years of age. The Board of Trustees adopted a decentralized service system requiring care be provided to local service areas in the most cost-effective manner. The Center has service centers located in seven locations in the Texas Panhandle: Amarillo, Borger, Clarendon, Dumas, Hereford, Pampa and Perryton. All Texas Panhandle MHMR primary locations are accessible to persons with disabilities, and all TPMHMR services are available through planned accomodations.
TPMHMR proudly serves the people of Dallam, Sherman, Hansford, Ochiltree, Lipscomb, Hartley, Moore, Hutchison, Roberts, Hemphill, Oldham, Potter, Carson, Gray, Wheeler, Deaf Smith, Randall, Armstrong, Donley, Collingsworth, and Hall counties.
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