Most beds at the state mental hospital in the Kansas City region will soon be out of service. Rainbow Mental Health, in Kansas City, Kansas, was recently cited for safety violations. Kansas SRS Secretary, Rob Siedlecki,(SIDE-leck-ee) stresses the closure of beds at Rainbow will be temporary.
Siedlecki says that includes installing a new sprinkler system and building smoke-barrier walls. Within the next couple weeks, patients at Rainbow will move to the state’s mental hospital in Osawatomie. The renovations will cost about half a million dollars, and take about half a year to complete. But Siedlecki says eight of Rainbow’s 36 beds will stay open so local police have a nearby place to bring people for evaluation. Earlier this year, Rainbow shut down 14 other beds because a federal review found the facility was understaffed.