Waianae mental Six boys who could be out boogie-boarding on a summer day are in class studying math.
health program
helps teens
Officials there hope the DOE
will allow them to continue
their work past Sept. 30DOE plans mental health treatment sites
By Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.comThey attend Ho'o Holo Imua, an adolescent day treatment program operated by the Waianae Coast Community Mental Health Center. Most say they would rather stay there than return to their home schools, which they will eventually.
It's not that they like math so much, but the program offers an array of academic, vocational, cultural and recreational activities, along with therapy.
Up to a dozen kids, averaging 13 to 15 years old, are at the program on any given day, said coordinator Michael K. Moore. The average stay is about a year, though some leave sooner and others stay much longer. Five students were discharged July 1 to return to home schools or go to summer school, he said.
Moore took over the program in 1998, after it had shut down, and rebuilt it from scratch in part of a duplex where someone had been raising pigs.
"The stench was so strong. We've still got a lot of repairs to do," Moore said.
Still, the facility has been transformed, due in large part to the kids.
"I'm so proud of this," he said. "When we started, the whole area was weeds, dry and brown. Everything green, including the trees, was planted by the kids to beautify things over the years."
The students are referred by schools, care coordinators or the state Department of Health, which had been paying for the treatment under the Felix consent decree.
Transfer of students' mental health services from the Department of Health to the Department of Education has cast a shadow over existing treatment programs, such as Ho'o Holo Imua.
Moore said the DOE gave his program a contract to continue until Sept. 30 and he is responding to a request for proposals for community-based treatment for adolescents. He fears the DOE will close his program because it is planning its own day treatment programs.
The department had paid for a teacher and two educational assistants for Ho'o Holo Imua but stopped June 30. Ocie Kuhaulua, the facility's case manager, started there as an educational assistant and is filling in as a substitute teacher. Other staffers include a therapist and vocational education teacher.
"Even with all the craziness, we still have six kids and we're getting referrals," Moore said. "The rug could be pulled out from under us Sept. 30, but we're caring for them as long as they need us. These kids have lived through some really tragic stuff."
Therapist Alfredo Rivas said the kids "have magnified issues. We're getting the top end, high-risk kids." Some are sent from hospitals to prepare them to go back to school, he said.
Assaultive behavior, separation from parents and foster homes are common among the youths, he said. "A number of them are impulsive, explosive. Their mood can shift dramatically over a minor incident."
Many have had poor models and are not used to appropriate actions, he said.
"They're used to a roughhouse manner, often aggressive, instead of showing tenderness.
"Predominantly what they see is domestic violence, substance abuse, police involved with their parents and themselves," Rivas added. "We try to promote cooperative behavior, to verbalize their needs instead of acting out."
"Sadly," Moore said, "mental health services are secondary to education" in the school system.
Even the Felix decree is worded so mental health services are provided specifically to do better at education, he pointed out.
The treatment program has been able to get 70 percent of the students back into school, gradually integrating them and sending staff to shadow them if they're falling apart, he said.
School-based behavioral day treatment programs are being planned at three sites in the state Department of Education's Leeward District. DOE plans mental
health treatment sitesBy Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.comThe state Health Department has transferred student mental health services provided under the Felix consent decree to the DOE for school-based services.
Candace Yamauchi, school-based behavioral health program manager in the Leeward District, said the elementary children's treatment program likely will be at Barbers Point Elementary School in a "slightly removed area."
She said she is "recruiting sites" for the secondary school programs, which will be at off-campus locations. "We would need to provide transportation."
Each site will have two classes, and each teacher will have two educational assistants, a behavioral health specialist and a clinical psychologist, Yamauchi said.
The behavioral health specialist will be in frequent contact with parents, she said. "We plan to have a strong family component."
The district office will oversee the programs, expected to be operational Oct. 1, Yamauchi said.
The Department of Education also is seeking proposals islandwide for community-based treatment for students who need more intensive help than can be provided in the school-based programs but who do not need to be hospitalized, she said.
The district has a day treatment model "developed by very knowledgeable people with a variety of experiences," Yamauchi said. "We're going to try to do some adaptations."
The final product is still evolving, but the programs will be academics-based. "We will not be baby-sitting children," she said.
"We have high hopes to use an educational model rather than a clinical model," she said, explaining treatment will follow the students' individual education plans.
Students are not intended to go to the programs for the whole year, she said. "The long-term goal in every case is to have the child return to their campus."