Permian Basin Behavioral Health Center

“I have supported the promise behind the Beacon and the effort to bring meaningful behavioral-health care to the Permian Basin. Nearly $200 million of state funding was allocated to this facility. Our community desperately needs it. But my family’s recent experience with the Permian Basin Behavioral Health Center has left me deeply concerned about whether the quality of care inside this publicly supported institution matches the hope represented by the project surrounding it. My mother was admitted while experiencing active psychosis, including voices directing her to harm herself. Our family repeatedly communicated that she remained symptomatic and that we did not believe she could safely return home alone. She was nevertheless discharged. Days later, she harmed herself a second time and required another emergency hospitalization. I am not sharing this to stigmatize my mother or to attack the idea of the Beacon. I am sharing it because a behavioral-health institution cannot be evaluated by the size of its building, the number of its beds, or the optimism of its announcements. It must be evaluated by what happens to vulnerable patients when the doors close—and by whether families who raise credible safety concerns are heard. If this happens while PBBHC is only treating 16 people at a time, what happens when all 200 beds are filled?”

“They are about to release my sister after 1 week, which is ridiculous. She has multiple issues, addiction, mental issues, and more. 1 week isn’t long enough. And they are releasing her without a ride while all her family is over 8 hours away. I do not recommend. The mental health system is truly a failure.”

“I felt safe, respected, and the staff treated me well here. Got to meet new people and learn different people’s ways, which I appreciated. Didn’t experience anything unpleasant or unsavory. The food was really good as well. Would say my stay was a pretty positive one overall.”

“I was lied to from the beginning, just to get a patient my stay was un acceptable ,the staff they where good people but under trained under, yes I understand just opening but they must understand separation. We were all in one pod which was not cool. We all had different situations different. I need a different attention which they are not ready for. You have people climbing across the counters, laying out on the floors, cursing out everybody fighting the help, some of the things that they said we're going to happen Never happened everything was slow, mental health is real. I feel as though I was used for training, nevertheless, I learned a valuable lesson. When you think that you got it bad , you always meet someone who has it worse than you.”