ASH provides care through three large services - Adult Psychiatric Services, Specialty Adult Services, and Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Services. The adult services program consists of five acute adult admission units, two intermediate care units, and one forensic unit. Specialty adult programs include the older adult unit, longer-term cognitive behavioral and multiple disabilities unit, and the deaf services and longer-term behaviorally stabilized unit. Child and adolescent programs offer services to children to the age of 12, an adolescent girls unit, and an adolescent boys unit.

Clinical specialties provide assessment, evaluation, and treatment, including psychiatry, nursing, social work, psychology, education/rehabilitation services, nutrition, and spiritual care. Additional clinical support is provided through the medical and dental clinics, x-ray and laboratory services, and other consultative services. The average length of stay at the hospital is about 18 days. Services are paid for through general revenue funds from the State of Texas, private payment, private third party insurance, as well as through Medicare and Medicaid programs.

Clinical Laboratory Science Program
The Austin State Hospital Program in Medical Technology, established in 1957, is an integral part of the Regional Clinical Laboratory of DSHS, which serves the clinical needs of DSHS consumers throughout the state of Texas. The Clinical Laboratory is located in the Medical Unit of Austin State Hospital and is directed by a consulting pathologist who is Board Certified in Clinical and Anatomical Pathology.

The Clinical Laboratory Science Program is designed for the instruction of students in both academic and practical phases of laboratory medicine. Graduates are eligible to take the certifying examination given by the Board of Registry (ASCP) or the National Credentialing Agency (NCA).

The practice of modern medicine would be impossible without the tests performed in the clinical laboratory. The Clinical Laboratory Scientist helps determine the presence, extent, or absence of disease and provides data needed to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment. Laboratory procedures require an array of complex precision instruments and a variety of automated and electronic equipment. Clinical Laboratory Scientists must be accurate, reliable, have an interest in science and be able to recognize their responsibility for human lives.