Maui shelter closing
at rough time

The island's crisis center for the
mentally ill lacks state approval
to run past next Tuesday

WAILUKU » The only crisis shelter that assists adult mental health patients on Maui is scheduled to shut down Dec. 14, during what some supporters say is the worst time of the year for many needing psychiatric help.

Colleen Wallace, executive director of the nonprofit Mental Health Association in Maui County, said the Mental Health Kokua's shelter in Wailuku will close when it's needed most.

"It often gets full over the holidays because people are more emotionally fragile," she said.

The six-bedroom shelter is closing because it has not met certain state requirements, including a land-use approval from the Maui Redevelopment Agency. Mental Health Kokua had been unaware of the need to obtain approval from the redevelopment agency to operate the shelter in a residential area, said its chief executive officer, Joanne Lundstrom.

Lundstrom said the group has applied for an approval from the agency.

"We're hoping it will get fast-fowarded," she said.

The crisis shelter provides 24-hour mental health services to about six to seven people daily, many of whom have recently been released from the psychiatric ward at Maui Memorial Medical Center, health providers on Maui said.

"For many people it's the only option," Wallace said.

Wallace said she fears that without the crisis shelter, many of them could become homeless and have difficulty staying on their medication.

Tom Abbott, Maui County Services director for Mental Health Kokua, said the patients might have to remain in the hospital longer if there is no place providing 24-hour mental health services.

"That gets real expensive in a hurry," Abbott said.

Mental Health Kokua officials have asked if they can extend the stay over December.

But Dianne Okumura, chief of the state Office of Health Care Assurance, said the Nov. 30 deadline has passed for the nonprofit group to comply with licensing requirements, including land-use approval.

Okumura said Mental Health Kokua has been told to transfer its Wailuku patients to other facilities by next Tuesday.

Dr. Tom Vendetti, an administrator with the state Adult Mental Health Division, said he has been in talks with the nonprofit group Aloha House, which operates a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center, to provide the services provided by the crisis shelter.

"We're not going to drop the ball. We will take care of the people in crisis," Vendetti said.

Maui Memorial spokeswoman Carol Clark said that in the absence of the crisis shelter, the hospital might have to look at releasing some psychiatric patients to the homeless shelter in Wailuku.

"It's going to be a bit of a challenge," Clark said.