County Attorney Suing State Agencies; Mental Health Referrals Main Issue

EL PASO, TX. – The County Attorneybelievesthe mental health care system is breaking down and has decided to take his case to court.

On Thursday, El Paso County Attorney Jose Rodriguez announced thathe’s suing several state and local agencies to bring attention to the problem.

At the center of the lawsuit is the El Paso Mental Health and Mental Retardation Center’s (MHMR) practice of sending patients it can’t treat to local hospital emergency rooms.MHMRrepresentatives tell ABC-7they’ve started sending them to hospitals because they don’t have the resources to render treatment.

Additionally, MHMR blames an on-going budget crunch in Austin for their inability to treat the patients. County Attorney Rodriguez was in District CourtThursday afternoon asking for an injunction in the case.

If granted, the injunction would preventMHMR from referring the patients to local hospitalfor treatment.