The need

The gap isn't an opinion. It's a map with a hole in it.

Starr County has no local place to take a person in mental health crisis. This page lays out why that has to change — plainly, and backed by numbers with a source and a date. Where a number isn't verified yet, we say so instead of guessing.

The reality today

What happens today, when there's nowhere to go

When a resident of Starr County is in crisis, the county has no inpatient psychiatric beds, no crisis stabilization unit, and no diversion center. There is simply no local door to walk them through.

So the crisis leaves the county. A deputy drives the person more than 50 miles out — sometimes hours away — at the worst moment of their life. Or they wait in an emergency room bed that isn't equipped for behavioral health. Or they are booked into a jail cell, when what they needed was treatment.

Every one of those outcomes costs something — to the family separated from a loved one, to the deputy off patrol for a day, to the hospital and the county. And none of them is care.

Why we are building this

The nearest help can be a whole day away.

When someone in Starr County is in a mental health crisis, a police officer becomes their driver. If a bed is open in Laredo or McAllen, that is an hour or more each way. If those beds are full — and they often are — the officer has to keep driving: to San Antonio, to Dallas, sometimes as far as Wichita Falls. That is most of a day gone, and hundreds of miles from home. For all of it, an officer is off the streets of Starr County instead of protecting the community — and a person in crisis is carried further and further from their family, their neighbors, and their language, at the worst moment of their life. A local crisis center ends that drive.

The public baseline

Starr County is a federally designated shortage area.

This isn't our claim — it's the federal government's. Starr County is a designated Mental Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA), a formal HRSA designation that measures how far the need outruns the available providers.

Federal designation
18

Mental Health HPSA score (0–25 scale; a higher score means greater shortage and need).

Source: HRSA Mental Health HPSA, ID 7482490230 (“MHCA 6 – Border Region,” covering Starr County). Designated 2023-04-10; HRSA record last updated 2025-09-22. Last verified by SCBHC 2026-07-14. data.hrsa.gov

Federal data
69,622:1

Estimated population-to-psychiatrist ratio for the designated area.

Source: HRSA Mental Health HPSA detail file (HPSA ID 7482490230). Last verified 2026-07-14. data.hrsa.gov

Census baseline
~97.6%

Share of Starr County residents who are Hispanic or Latino — why genuinely bilingual crisis care isn't optional here.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts — Starr County, Texas. Last verified 2026-07-14. census.gov

The area is classified Rural, with a county population of about 65,920 (2020 Census). Because HRSA revises shortage scores periodically, we re-verify the live HRSA record and publish the current score with its effective date.

The data

We're building the case on numbers we can prove.

A crisis center is a serious ask. It deserves serious evidence. We are gathering hard local data — and we will publish each figure only with its source and the date it was pulled. If a number can't be sourced, it doesn't go on this site.

Sheriff records request
716

Mental-health evaluations Starr County deputies conducted over three years — 135 in FY2023, 265 in FY2024, 316 in FY2025. Rising every year.

Source: Starr County Sheriff's Department, three-year records request (FY2023–FY2025), received 2026-07-29. See the full dataset.

Hospital records request
196

Of 1,094 behavioral-health emergency encounters, 196 (17.9%) ended in a transfer out of the county. The nearest psychiatric bed is about an hour away.

Source: Starr County Memorial Hospital, emergency-department behavioral-health encounters, received 2026-07-28. See the full dataset.

Sheriff records request
2,619

Deputy hours spent over three years driving people in crisis out of the county instead of patrolling it — 1,242 in FY2025 alone, about 60% of a full-time deputy position.

Source: Starr County Sheriff's Department, three-year records request (FY2023–FY2025), received 2026-07-29. See the full dataset.

Sheriff records request
821

Bookings into the county jail over three years where mental health was a factor — 343 in FY2023, 219 in FY2024, 259 in FY2025.

Source: Starr County Sheriff's Department, three-year records request (FY2023–FY2025), received 2026-07-29. See the full dataset.

Not in the dataset
ER boarding time

How long people in behavioral-health crisis wait in an emergency room not equipped for them.

The hospital records we received (2026-07-28) count encounters and outcomes but do not record how long each patient waited. We have asked for boarding duration; it publishes here with its source and date.

Data being gathered
Waitlist for care

How long a resident waits for behavioral-health care in or near the county.

Data being gathered from the regional mental health authority and local providers. Source and date cited on arrival.

How we gather this

Data is being gathered directly from the agencies that live this problem. As each figure is verified, it will appear above with a citation and a “last updated” date.

Where our numbers come from

  • Starr County Sheriff's Office — mental-health calls for service, out-of-county transports, and deputy hours
  • Local hospital / emergency department — behavioral health boarding times
  • Border Region Behavioral Health Center — the Local Mental Health Authority serving Starr County
  • Juvenile and adult probation — cases tied to untreated mental illness
  • The courts — mental-health-related dockets and diversions
  • Area independent school districts — student mental-health need and referrals

Requests we've sent, and where they stand

The list above is where the numbers will come from. This is the record of what we have actually asked for, and when. We publish it so anyone can see the evidence base being built in the open — including the requests still outstanding.

  • Data received

    Starr County Memorial Hospital

    Local hospital and emergency department, Starr County

    Behavioral-health emergency department volume and boarding times.

    Received

  • Data received

    Starr County Sheriff's Department

    County law enforcement, Starr County

    Mental-health calls for service, out-of-county transports, deputy hours, and jail bookings tied to mental illness.

    Requested · Received

  • Awaiting response

    County of Starr

    County government

    County records supporting the behavioral-health need assessment.

    Requested

  • Awaiting response

    Border Region Behavioral Health Center

    Regional Local Mental Health Authority serving Starr County

    Service volume, waitlists, and crisis contacts for Starr County.

    Requested

  • Awaiting response

    Rio Grande City Grulla Independent School District

    Area school district, Starr County

    Student mental-health need and referral volume.

    Requested

  • Awaiting response

    Roma Independent School District

    Area school district, Starr County

    Student mental-health need and referral volume.

    Requested

  • Awaiting response

    Starr County Juvenile Probation

    Juvenile justice, Starr County

    Referrals and cases tied to untreated mental illness.

    Requested

  • Awaiting response

    Rio Grande City Police Department

    Municipal law enforcement, Starr County

    Mental-health calls for service, out-of-county transports, and officer hours.

    Requested

  • Awaiting response

    Roma Police Department

    Municipal law enforcement, Starr County

    Mental-health calls for service, out-of-county transports, and officer hours.

    Requested

  • Awaiting response

    Zapata County Sheriff's Office

    County law enforcement in the neighboring county served by the same Local Mental Health Authority

    Mental-health calls for service and out-of-county transports — regional comparison, not Starr County data.

    Regional comparison — not Starr County data

    Requested

The Sheriff's and hospital records have been reviewed and their figures are published above, each with its source and the date it was received. Data still arriving stays off this site until it can be published the same way.

Two datasets are now published in full

The hospital's emergency department records and the Sheriff's Office transport and detention logs have been reviewed and published — each with its sources, its arithmetic, and the discrepancies we found in it. See the evidence record, or read the stakeholder briefing that draws on both.

What this list is, and isn't

Asking an agency for public data is not a partnership and not an endorsement. Listing an agency here means only that we sent it a request on the date shown — the request itself says nothing about whether that agency supports, has joined, or funds the Center. Where an organization has separately gone on the record in support, we report that on our updates page, with its date.

What comes next

This is what we're building to fix.

The need is local. The answer should be too.

See the plan Show your support