If the treating physician determines that the patient requires longer term involuntary psychiatric treatment, the appropriate state agency initiates a referral to Torrance.

[1][2][3] Torrance State Hospital is located on a 376-acre campus in the foothills of the Chestnut Ridge, a rural area 45 miles east of Pittsburgh just off Route 22 in Derry Township, Westmoreland County.

[7] As the need for psychiatric and long-term care beds on the grounds of the state hospital has decreased and availability of community supports has increased, some areas of the physical plant have been converted to other uses.

These include: The South West Secure Treatment Unit, a facility operated by the Department of Human Service's Office of Children, Family and Youth for adjudicated juveniles, is no longer located on the grounds.

The geographic catchment area of Torrance State Hospital[9] includes the counties of Allegheny, Armstrong, Bedford, Blair, Butler, Cambria, Fayette, Indiana, Somerset and Westmoreland.