Texas Psychiatric Hospital Accused of Raping Young Girls is Finally Shut Down

Timberlawn psychiatric hospital in Dallas, Texas, owned by Universal Health Services (UHS), announced it is closing its doors, following state officials threatening to shut it down in the wake of allegations of patient sexual assault, including the rape of a 13-year-old girl under its care. Timberlawn is one of hundreds of behavioral hospitals owned by UHS that boasts being the largest psychiatric hospital chain in the U.S. The facility, along with other UHS behavioral facilities in Texas and other states, has been plagued by allegations of sexual and physical assaults against patients. On January 19, 2018, The Dallas Morning News, which has done extensive investigations into and stories about abuses at Timberlawn, detailed how in recent years the psychiatric facility has been under scrutiny over safety and other issues, including a patient who warned she was suicidal but hanged herself in the facility in 2014. And a female patient alleged a male patient entered her room and raped her.