Three Teaching Hospitals of Texas members are among the nine recipients of new state Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship Program grants.

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center each will receive a $555,555 grant to develop or expand one-year fellowship programs for licensed physicians pursuing specialization in forensic psychiatry. The goal is to increase access to mental health services for individuals involved in legal proceedings and those requiring forensic evaluation and treatment.

“THOT members have a long history of innovating to meet the diverse range of behavioral health care needs in the state,” said Maureen Milligan, PhD, president and CEO, Teaching Hospitals of Texas. “These forensic psychiatry fellowship grants will accelerate their work to educate and train the specialty physicians our state needs for a rapidly growing population.”

The grants are administered by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and are authorized and appropriated by the 89th Texas Legislature, Regular Session through the General Appropriations Act, Senate Bill 1, Article III, Rider 48.

One of the recipients, UT Southwestern in Dallas, is partnering with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and Children’s Health to fund and operate a new psychiatric hospital. The Texas Behavioral Health Center at UT Southwestern is slated to open in the summer 2026, and 75 of its 200 adult beds are dedicated to the forensic population. UTSW is currently one of the few medical schools in the state equipped to train physicians for forensic psychiatry and has the largest psychiatry residency and fellowship training program in the state. The new behavioral health hospital provides additional training opportunities and exposure to different therapy and treatment modalities.