Torrance State Hospital
Torrance State Hospital is a public mental health hospital in Torrance, Pennsylvania. It is one of six state hospitals in the state and is run by the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. The hospital provides inpatient treatment for people with serious and persistent mental illness. It is one of only two Pennsylvania hospitals that care for mentally ill patients who have committed major crimes; the other is Norristown State Hospital.
Patients usually come to Torrance after treatment at a community health facility. If doctors determine they need longer involuntary psychiatric care, the state starts a referral to Torrance.
The hospital sits on a 376-acre campus in the Chestnut Ridge foothills, about 45 miles east of Pittsburgh, near Route 22 in Derry Township, Westmoreland County.
Torrance opened on November 25, 1919, when five patients were transferred from Danville Hospital. The patient census grew to roughly 3,300 in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1966, laws promoting community-based mental health care began the move away from large institutions.
Since then Torrance has reduced its census and shifted toward helping people return to community living. The Long Term Care Unit, a licensed Skilled Nursing Facility, closed in 1996, and the Mental Retardation Unit closed in June 1998. By January 2019 the hospital had fewer than 300 patients, and by November 2020 four buildings were unused. As needs changed, some areas of the campus were repurposed, including removal of the South West Secure Treatment Unit for adjudicated juveniles that was once on site.
Today Torrance emphasizes modern psychiatric care with thorough assessments, effective treatment, outcome measurement, accountability, and efficiency. It aims to be a leading provider in Southwestern Pennsylvania and to help people recover and return to community living. The hospital serves a catchment area that includes Allegheny, Armstrong, Bedford, Blair, Butler, Cambria, Fayette, Indiana, Somerset, and Westmoreland counties.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 00:47 (CET).