Kerrville State Hospital (KSH) is a mental hospital in

Kerrville, Texas Kerrville is a city in, and the county seat of, Kerr County, Texas, Kerr County, Texas, United States. The population of Kerrville was 24,278 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Kerrville is named after James Kerr (Texas politi ...

, operated by health and human services. The patients of this 202-patient facility, who were judged in state courts as " not guilty by reason of insanity" and/or "

incompetent to stand trial In United States and Canadian law, competence concerns the mental capacity of an individual to participate in legal proceedings or transactions, and the mental condition a person must have to be responsible for his or her decisions or acts. Comp ...

," come from throughout the state. The majority were originally patients of North Texas State Hospital Vernon Campus but were moved here because the state determined they needed a longer stay in mental healthcare, while also not being obviously harmful to others.Kerrville State Hospital
"

Texas Department of State Health Services Texas Department of State Health Services is a state agency of Texas. The department was created by House Bill 2292 of the 78th Texas Legislature in 2003 through the merging of four state agencies: the Texas Department of Health, Texas Department ...

. Retrieved on October 12, 2017. Kerrville State Hospital is not fenced, and it does not have guards carrying weapons.

History

The property, purchased by the State of Texas in 1935, previously served as other healthcare facilities before 1951. The

dude ranch A guest ranch, also known as a dude ranch, is a type of ranch oriented towards visitors or tourism. It is considered a form of agritourism. History Guest ranches arose in response to the romanticization of the American West that began to occur ...

My Ranch operated here at the beginning of the 20th century; it began its life as a healthcare area in 1915. From 1915 to 1917 the tuberculosis hospital Mountain Park Sanitorium occupied the site, and from 1917 to 1935 Thompson Sanitorium, run by Dr. Sam E. Thompson, occupied the site. From 1935 until a few years later, it served as a state treatment center for black people with tuberculosis.About Kerrville State Hospital
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. Retrieved on October 12, 2017. In 1951 it opened as a Kerrville branch of a state mental hospital located in

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. In 1952 it became the Kerrville State Hospital, its own institution. Originally it only served residents of specific counties in the

Texas Hill Country The Texas Hill Country is a geographic region of Central and South Texas, forming the southeast part of the Edwards Plateau. Given its location, climate, terrain, and vegetation, the Hill Country can be considered the border between the Ameri ...

. The largest treatment building opened in 1992; it houses eight treatment programs.

Notable patients

Andrea Yates Andrea Pia Yates ( Kennedy; born July 2, 1964) is an American woman from Houston, Texas, who confessed to drowning her five children in their bathtub on June 20, 2001. She had severe postpartum depression, postpartum psychosis, and schizophrenia ...

, known for killing her children in 2001, is located here. She began treatment there in 2007. she is the sole patient not allowed outside of the property. Deanna Laney was also located here. She was released in 2012.

References

External links

Kerrville State Hospital
Psychiatric hospitals in Texas Kerrville, Texas Buildings and structures in Kerr County, Texas {{Texas-hospital-stub