Monday - Friday
8:00 am - 5:00 pm

500 E. San Antonio
Suite 301
El Paso, Texas 79901
Phone (915) 546-2111
Fax (915) 543-3817
commissioner2
@epcounty.com

El Paso County Commissioner Pct. 2
Veronica Escobar

  • Healthcare
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  • In 2007, our community's huge accomplishment was the passage of the Children's Hospital bond initiative. In 2008, my focus shifted to mental health. Our office worked with the Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce, El Paso Mental Health and Mental Retardation (MHMR) and UTEP's IPED on a much-needed mental health mapping project to identify the dollars we need from the state. This project has taken place over a year and a half and has included innumerable stakeholders. A study conducted by IPED helped document for the state what many of us locally already knew: our mental health system is significantly under-funded and requires additional state funding to prevent a community crisis.

    My gratitude goes to Richard Dayoub, Mica Espinoza and Susan Guerra from the Greater Chamber, and Gary Larcenaire and Rene Hurtado from EPMHMR for their dedication to this project. Without it, we would not have this document to share with the state legislature when asking them to better fund our system during the current legislative session. There are many more areas in mental health requiring study and attention, but this study is a positive step in the right direction.