Prairie View Hospital, a mental hospital located near Newton, Kansas, established by Mennonite Men­tal Health Services, Inc., a section of the Men­nonite Central Committee, and, in the late 1950s, operated by a local board representing ten Mennonite groups in the cen­tral area of the United States. The hospital is a treatment center for acute mental illnesses and longer term rehabili­tation with limited service for care of the chronical­ly ill. Originally there was room for 41 inpatients. Outpatient serv­ices reached a large number of former inpatients and others not requiring hospitalization. The hospital, a one-story brick construction on a 50-acre tract east of Newton, was opened on 15 March 1954. The cost of the plant and equipment was approximately $280,000, nearly all of which was given by the MCC constituency in the central area of the United States. At this time the total staff averaged about 40 including profes­sional and nonprofessional personnel. The hospital, with other Mennonite mental hospitals, grew out of a concern for better treatment of the mentally ill which developed during World War II when Mennonite conscientious objectors served in state hospitals. It furnished an outlet for Christian service for young people on a voluntary service or remuner­ative basis. At the time this included many young men giving alternative service to military training. Plans were in progress to include a training program for graduate nurses wishing to specialize in psychiatric nursing.

Additional Information

Address: 1901 E. First Street, PO Box 467, Newton, Kansas 67114-0467; Telephone: 316-284-6400.

Website: http://www.pvi.org/

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, pp. 209-210. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

©1996-2008 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.

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