JPS Opens Clinic to Serve Growing Behavioral Health Needs of Tarrant County

JPS Health Network announces the opening of a new outpatient Behavioral Health clinic that will both increase the number of patients it can treat and allow it to enhance the services it offers people in need of care.

Called the JPS Center for Behavioral Health Recovery, the facility has replaced the outdated, Hemphill Outpatient Behavioral Health clinic, which was on the southwest corner of the JPS campus in Fort Worth. The facility is located a few blocks to the north in a more inviting and more purposefully designed building at 601 W. Terrell Avenue.

Slightly larger than the Hemphill site, the new clinic features a much more efficient use of space. Doctors, nurses and other team members cared for about 160 people each day at the former building. They expect to be able to greatly expand their capacity to serve those with behavioral health needs at the new site.

“I challenge people who say facilities don’t have anything to do with the quality of care that we can provide to patients,” said Teneisha Kennard, Executive Director of Behavioral Health Ambulatory Services at the health network. “We prioritize treating our patients with dignity and respect, and this new building will show our patients and community our commitment to caring for them. There is dignity, respect, and a sense of worth in this new building.”

The Center for Behavioral Health recovery will unite traditional outpatient Behavioral Health services offered at Hemphill including evaluation, diagnosis, medication management, brief psychotherapy, psychological testing, and group therapies with access to primary care physicians and lab testing under one roof.

Features of the new Behavioral Health clinic include:

• Space for a primary care physician and phlebotomists who can perform tests on-site instead of sending patients to the main hospital, requiring an extra trip back and forth.
• Dedicated space for psychological testing and for psychologists to meet with patients
• More open and inviting spaces that will contribute to a more constructive environment for patients
• Easier to get to, with more on-site parking and a bus stop in front of the building for patients who rely on public transportation.

The new location, which previously served as the home of the JPS Center for Cancer Care, has been extensively remodeled since cancer services were moved in May 2019 to a much larger, updated JPS Oncology and Infusion Center on 8th Avenue.

The Hemphill site will be torn down in the coming weeks, and turned into a parking lot to facilitate the next moves in the health network’s $800 million bond construction project. Tentative Phase I plans call for a new Psychiatric Emergency Center to be built on existing employee parking lots closer to the center of the main JPS campus.