KDADS seeks input on what to do with Rainbow Mental Health Facility

State welfare officials are seeking recommendations on what to do with Rainbow Mental Health Facility in Kansas City.

The hospital has been mostly closed since November 2011 after failing state fire marshal inspections. A small emergency unit is still operating, but most patients are now referred instead to Osawatomie State Hospital, which is about an hour’s drive south of Kansas City.

The Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, which oversees the four state hospitals, announced today it was publishing a formal Request for Information or RFI to get ideas or proposals for how to move forward with the facility.

The RFI is being handled through the Kansas Department of Administration, the agency that administers contract bids. Recommendations will be accepted through Aug. 5.

“The department has been collaborating with law enforcement, legislators and our mental health partners in exploring possibilities for the future use of Rainbow in order to better serve the surrounding communities and the state,” said KDADS Secretary Shawn Sullivan in a prepared statement. “This RFI will provide us with more of the information we need to decide Rainbow’s future. It is not a request for bids to provide specific services.”

The agency announced the RFI in a joint press release that included comments from a state senator and the executive director of the association that represents the state’s community mental health centers.

Sen. Jim Denning, an Overland Park Republican who chairs the Senate Ways and Means social services subcommittee, said he supported increasing the number of “crisis stablization” beds at Rainbow.

“The Johnson County and Wyandotte County sheriffs need a port in the storm to avoid having to take mentally ill patients to jail,” he said. “Without an appropriate level of crisis stabilization beds, law enforcement has no option other than to take a mentally ill citizen to jail, which is not an appropriate setting for the delivery of mental health services to citizens.”

Denning’s brother, Frank, is Johnson County sheriff.

Mike Hammond, executive director of the Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas said the RFI was “a unique opportunity to help shape a decision the state will make to ensure the (mental health) system has the appropriate resources to meet the needs of those we serve, be it by continuing with services previously provided by (Rainbow) or redesigning those services and placing them in a community setting.”

KDADS officials said the services that need to be provided in the region:

• 24-hour crisis response.
• Short-term crisis stabilization, including the capacity to access mobile crisis response.
• Medically monitored detoxification and substance abuse services connected to ongoing addiction treatment.
• Beds where patients could be kept up to seven days.
• Outpatient crisis stabilization services available up to 96 hours.

The RFI asks what services people believe should be maintained at Rainbow and what services the respondents might be interested in providing under contract to the state and whether they would need space at the hospital. It also asks how the present system might be improved to reduce the need for state hospital beds.

“One of our primary goals here is to ensure coordinated involvement with existing community services and stakeholders,”Sullivan said. “I would also like to thank and acknowledge members of the Rainbow staff who have maintained their commitment to patient care under difficult circumstances, including the need to commute from Kansas City to Osawatomie daily for many months.”