MHMRA Mission Statement
It shall be the mission of the Mental Health and Mental Retardation
Authority of Harris County, within the resources available,
to provide or ensure the provision of services and supports
that are as high quality, efficient, and cost effective as
possible such that persons with mental disabilities may live
with dignity as fully functioning, participating, and contributing
members of our community, regardless of their ability to pay
or third party coverage.
• Persons with severe mental illness should be able to
live in homes of their own, develop relationships, work, and
remain out of hospitals and jails.
• Persons with mental retardation or developmental delays
should be able to acquire the skills and access community
resources to develop networks of human relationships, learn,
work, and live in environments of their choosing.
• Children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbances
should be able to live in homes with families, develop normal
relationships with their peers, attend school, and remain
out of hospitals, residential, and juvenile justice facilities.
Priority Population
“Priority population” is the term used within the
Texas MHMR system to describe the people we serve — people
diagnosed with a severe and persistent mental illness, children
with serious emotional disturbances and people diagnosed with
moderate to severe mental retardation.
The Texas Mental Health Mental Retardation Act, which established
specific criteria to define the priority population, requires
that services be offered first to those most in need. State
mental health/mental retardation dollars may be used only
to provide services to the priority populations.
The size of these priority populations for Harris County is
estimated to be:
Adults with Major Mental Illness — There are an
estimated 55,000 adults with mental illness in Harris County
in need of public service who meet the priority population
criteria. Resource limitations allow MHMRA to serve only about
15,000 of these people. Therefore, there are approximately
40,000 adults in the priority population who need our agency’s
services but are not receiving them.
People with Mental Retardation — The MR Division
of MHMRA serves more than 6,500 individuals in Harris County.
There are an estimated 15,800 individuals in the county with
IQ scores of 70 or below with adaptive behavior delays who
are classified as mentally retarded. Mental retardation is
not an illness — it is a condition that begins at birth
or in early childhood.
Children and Adolescents with Serious Emotional Disturbance
—Nearly 8,000 children in the priority population were
able to be served in FY ‘99. It is estimated that there
are in excess of 54,000 children in Harris County with serious
emotional disturbance in need of public mental health services.
Some of these children, who are not able to be served due
to funding limitations, end up accessing services through
other health and human service organizations throughout the
county, though not all are able to find accessible services.
