The Meadows Foundation has awarded a $100,000 grant to UT Health San Antonio’s Transitional Care Clinic (TCC), an innovative psychiatric program operated by the Department of Psychiatry.
The TCC is a short-term clinic that helps people transition from hospital-based psychiatric care to long-term mental health care in the community. The clinic annually treats up to 1,500 patients with serious mental illness until they can find regular care.
The TCC was founded in 2012 as a professional training and clinical care pilot program. It was meant to address the shortage of mental health professionals in San Antonio and the need for quick access to evaluation, stabilization and short-term care for those transitioning from a hospital to community care.
In its first four years, the TCC provided training in community-based mental health care to 65 medical residents and 150 health professions students. More than 3,000 acutely ill psychiatric patients were served.
It is estimated that in Bexar County alone,100,000 people suffer from serious mental illness. The shortage of mental health providers and reduced services has resulted in more patients being treated in emergency rooms, which in turn has increased the need for transitional psychiatric care such as the TCC provides.
Since its founding in 1948, the Dallas-based Meadows Foundation has disbursed more than $775 million in grants in the areas of education, arts and culture, health and public affairs.