About Texas Living
Robert Skinner is the Director of Texas Living. He has been working in the mental health field in the Dallas area since 1982. He started with Dallas Co. Mental Health Mental Retardation where he helped develop a residential program for the Independence House program for adults with severe mental illnesses. Texas was de-institutionalizing the state hospitals and thousands of patients were released into the local communities.
He remained in community mental health residential programs for the next seven years. He also worked for both Tarrant Co. MHMR and the Phoenix House Project which oversaw the Fairweather Lodge program in Dallas.
Texas Living’s mission is to assist each client in achieving their highest level of independence.
In 1989, Robert started Texas Living with the concept of working with the individual. It was believed if the clients’ goals and motivations were taken into consideration, then it would be more likely the individual would do the things necessary to stay in that setting and not return to the hospital. The concept has proved effective as Texas Living has a number of clients that have been out of the hospital for over 12 years and are functioning very independently in their own residences. He has now worked with hundreds of clients over the past 27 years.
He currently also works part time with a church called The Well Community. This is a program that works with the inner city adult mental health population. Robert is head of the case management program. He assists members to get into their own housing and he runs a group home of 7 men called Jacob’s House. He assists other members to obtain benefits and resources that enable them to become more independent. This program is the only faith based church that works with the mentally ill in Dallas. They have been featured in People Magazine.
Robert attended Western Illinois University in 1971 – 1975. There he majored in Psychology and minored in Business Administration. He has three children, two boys and a girl. He lives in Collin Co. and serves both Dallas and Collin Co.