Teen’s suicide sparked a North Texas movement to expand mental health care
If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing or texting “988.”
Texas ranks 50 out of 51 when it comes to access to mental health care, according to a report by Mental Health America.
For Blake Serpa, that’s not good enough.
His goal, and the goal of the behavioral health organization he started, is to take Texas to the top five when it comes to access to care by 2030.
That ambitious goal is driven by the Serpa’s family personal experience. Serpa’s sister, Brittney, died by suicide in 2012, at age 18. His family’s grief drove them to work in the mental health field, and in 2019 they opened BasePoint Academy, a behavioral health organization with four locations throughout Dallas-Fort Worth. Serpa is the founder and CEO of BasePoint, and his father Roy Serpa is chairman.
“My mom said something pretty profound a couple years ago,” Serpa said. “She said, ‘We can let this destroy our family or we can do something about it.’”
Initially, Serpa’s family worked in substance abuse treatment, before the idea for BasePoint inspired them to open the flagship location in Forney in 2019. Since then, BasePoint has opened locations in McKinney, Arlington and Frisco, and plans to open a fifth location in North Richland Hills in August. And they plan to keep growing: Their goal is to have 10 locations by 2028, and they expect to expand to the Austin area next, said Haley Hicks, BasePoint’s chief operating officer and a licensed clinical social worker.
BasePoint’s operating model is driven by a simple question, Hicks said: What would I want for my family?
Initially, BasePoint focused on providing day treatment for pre-teens and teenagers from 11 to 18. In 2024, Hicks said, they started treating young adults. Now, BasePoint provides day treatment for people between 11 and 35. In 2025, BasePoint provided more than 3,500 crisis assessments.
That means “3,500 families that have been prevented from going into an inpatient psychiatric hospital or emergency room experience,” Serpa said.
A key aspect of BasePoint’s model is that it provides transportation to any client who lives within 25 miles of the clinic locations.
“We wouldn’t have 80% of our clients if we weren’t able to help them access care by way of transportation,” Hicks said.
BasePoint is expanding into a strained mental health system in Texas. More than half of all children who experienced a depressive episode in Texas did not receive mental health services, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Of the state’s 254 counties, the majority have been designated “mental health professional shortage areas.”
When the Serpas started working in mental health treatment, they found a field that was the “stepchild” of health care, Serpa said.
“What we really learned was it was a really fragmented space that lacked investment and lacked leadership, especially in Texas,” Serpa said.
One of the biggest issues they found is that in Texas, Medicaid does not pay for intensive outpatient programs or partial hospitalization programs, leaving Texas kids without a needed source of mental health treatment, Serpa said. That’s something that Serpa is lobbying the Texas Legislature to change.
But in the meantime, BasePoint’s leaders are continuing to provide care to those in need. They urged families not to wait to seek out mental health treatment.
“You don’t have to wait until it gets to the last resort,” said Dr. Kimberly Dobbins, chief medical officer for BasePoint.
This story was originally published May 27, 2026 at 11:13 AM.
