2024 Annual Report (1) - Flipbook - Page 14
FOUNDATION BACKS PROGRAMS FOR PBBHC SUCCESS
Foundation awards grants to help staff Permian Basin Behavioral Health Center
For nearly a decade, Scharbauer Foundation has
worked to increase access to mental health care in
the region. After engaging Meadows Mental Health
Policy Institute in 2016 to complete an assessment
of mental healthcare in the area, the Foundation
continued working with community partners to
address the severe shortage of resources available
in the region where nearly one third of the
population faces mental or behavioral health
issues.
require 11 for adequate medical staffing in its seven
inpatient units, partial hospitalization, intensive
outpatient, and outpatient programs. Scharbauer
Foundation’s grant of more than $4 million will
assist TTUHSC in recruiting nine additional faculty
psychiatrists to grow the residency program and
support the Behavioral Health Center.
In another effort to develop the pipeline of
behavioral health professionals needed to equip
the Behavioral Health Center, the Foundation
allocated up to $2.5 million for PBBHC to support
the Collaborative Care Fellowship Program. The
program is a partnership to provide clinical training
through TTUHSC for pre-licensed mental health
professionals who have completed their degree
programs but lack the 3,000 hours of experience
required for licensure. Preference will be given to
recent graduates of the Behavioral Health Master’s
Programs at University of Texas Permian Basin
with the intent to increase the number of local
licensed behavioral health professionals who will
seek employment at the PBBHC or elsewhere in
the community.
An early philanthropic supporter of the Permian
Basin Behavioral Health Center (PBBHC),
Scharbauer Foundation awarded $12 million in
2022 for what was then proposed as a 100-bed
facility. In the past two years the project has
doubled in scope. The Center, set to open in spring
2026, will include 200 beds with inpatient and
outpatient mental health services for children and
adults.
Operating plans for the PBBHC rely on a
partnership with Texas Tech Health Science Center
of the Permian Basin (TTUHSC). TTUHSC’s
psychiatric residency and child/adolescent
fellowship programs will provide the primary
medical support for the Behavioral Health Center
and be housed within the Center.
Fellows in the Program will work in a team with
primary care physicians and psychiatrists to treat
patients experiencing mild to moderate mental or
behavioral health problems. The Program allows
fellows to earn a salary while completing the
clinical hours required for licensure. Physicians
may also bill for services provided by the fellows.
The model allows for enough revenue to sustain
program costs after the first three years.
In spring 2024, PBBHC requested funding to help
grow the TTUHSC psychiatry program to the level
necessary to cover the medical needs of the
Behavioral Health Center. While TTUHSC employed
two full-time faculty psychiatrists, the PBBHC will
14
