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Mental health
clinic, life skills
class to stay at
Diamond Head

The state health director
says he still needs space
for children's programs

---

By Crystal Kua
Star-Bulletin

Grinning from ear to ear, Brian Oishi offered to cook a spaghetti dinner for state Health Director Bruce Anderson.

That's because Oishi was grateful and pleased with Anderson's announcement yesterday before a tightly packed crowd that the adult mental health services and a life skills program slated to be moved from the Diamond Head Mental Health Center won't be relocated after all.

"We made the decision to leave the clinic where it is, life skills program where it is," Anderson said. "The programs will be there for a long time."

The announcement, met with applause and cheers from an audience filled with advocate groups and mental health consumers who were wearing stickers with the message "Stop! Don't Move," signaled a victory for those, like Oishi, who protested the relocation plans.

"We are very happy with the decision," said Oishi, a life skills and adult services client at Diamond Head, who was one of the more vocal opponents to the state's plans.

Oishi said the decision by Anderson, who made the announcement before a packed conference room at the state Capitol, was a surprise.

He expected the health director to present alternate scenarios for moving.

"This is a shock," Oishi said. "We didn't know it would turn out like this."

Cramped working conditions

The Health Department had planned to move adult mental health services for about 300 clients to the Lanakila Health Center in Kalihi-Palama. The 30 or so clients of the Life Skills program, which teaches mentally ill persons to live independently, was to be moved to the Honolulu Clubhouse at Fort Street Mall.

The department is under court order to improve services for the developmentally disabled and for adult and child mental health clients, all of whom are located at the center.

As the children's health program has grown during the past year, the staff has been working under cramped conditions, Anderson said. Finding more room for the staff administering the program still must be done, he said.

"Hopefully we'll be able to find some way to accommodate the staff that are currently working under unacceptable work conditions in the building," Anderson said. "We are looking at options for the children's program, other buildings that might be suitable."

Moving means disruptions

Anderson said some space is being freed up by the occupational and physical therapy program, which was next to the children's program, being moved to Department of Education facilities.

"That provides some relief but certainly not enough to accommodate our needs in the future."

He said he would like to house the entire children's program in one facility, but can't do that without "pulling the plug" for a certain amount of time on a computerized information system needed to meet benchmarks in a federal consent decree aimed at improving special education services.

"If we have to move the information management systems, we're going to miss the deadlines on a couple of things," Anderson said.

But relocating the adult mental health programs won't work either, because the move would be too disruptive for the programs, Anderson said.

"This was the right decision to make for the adult population. Certainly, we didn't want to hurt anyone through this process," Anderson said.

"I think we've all learned a lot through this process. I certainly learned a lot of more about the programs."