$14.2M grant aids mental health care
Hawaii is receiving $14.2 million in federal funds over the next five years to develop a comprehensive plan for mental health care in the islands.
"This grant is going to transform how we help people with mental illness and how we help their families and how we help society to deal with this issue," Gov. Linda Lingle said yesterday at a news conference announcing the grant. "It will allow us to devise a plan, to implement it, to measure the results that we achieve and to be a model for the nation."
Hawaii and Missouri were the only states selected this year to receive the Mental Health Transformation State Incentive grant, officials said. Since 2005, eight states have received the grants from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
The money will augment the roughly $182 million the state spends on adult and adolescent mental health programs each year.
Lingle said she plans to set up a working group to discuss strategies for how to best use the money. The group will include senior executives from departments, agencies and offices that deliver, fund or administer services for people with mental illness or their families.
"For the first time you'll have an entire organization focused on just planning for our state's future and how we're going to deal collectively and collaboratively with these issues," she said.
While she and others praised efforts of various state agencies and programs in dealing with mental illness in Hawaii, she said the grant offers a first-of-its-kind opportunity to bring all groups together to collaborate on a statewide plan.
"There is no comprehensive statewide plan currently in existence," said Dr. Chiyome Fukino, state health director. "Every one of us has been doing something in different areas, and now it's time for us to pull all the strings together to really develop a comprehensive strategy and plan that everyone can understand and contribute to."
Experts say one in five people in Hawaii, whether it is someone who suffers from mental illness or that person's family, friends or co-workers, lives with the effects of mental illness, Lingle said.
The governor has supported mental health initiatives in the past and testified before various legislative committees, describing how her mother's mental illness has affected her family. Her mother, who lives in California, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder more than 40 years ago, and Lingle visits her several times a year.
"Mental illness doesn't just affect the person with the disease; it affects their families and their friends," she said. "A part of the Transformation grant will look at those issues as well."