Big Island leads way
in elder-care project

Mayor Harry Kim has a personal
interest in making the most
of a recent federal grant

The Big Island is trying to make it easier for families to get information about long-term care for elderly relatives.

"I've got to give credit to the mayor (Harry Kim)," said Alan Parker, Hawaii County Office of Aging executive. "He's always a jump ahead of everybody else."

Parker said Kim had experienced caregiving for his wife's parents and asked him about six months ago to work on improving access to information. "He wants something so people are not going to be referred all over the place."

Hawaii's Executive Office on Aging has received an $800,000 federal grant to create long-term care resource centers, and Hilo is well on the way to establishing the first one.

"It was like a dream kind of thing when I talked to Alan Parker," Kim said. "He took it from there. I'm so grateful to him for what he has done. He is so far away from where I even hoped to be at this point."

Moving ahead with county support, Parker said that if negotiations for a site go well, he hopes to get a facility running in 12 to 15 months.

Hawaii is one of 19 states sharing $15 million awarded by the Administration on Aging and Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services for the Aging and Disability Resource Centers.

Pat Sasaki, state Executive Office on Aging director, said the funds will help the state plan and develop the centers. She said the federal grant will help the Hilo project, but Hawaii County is putting in money to make it work.

Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann sent a letter of support regarding the grant but he's unable to commit resources for the project at this time, she said.

"For Oahu, because resources are so limited here, we're going to spend some time to find a suitable site, to develop a plan and resources to keep it going on a long-running basis," Sasaki said.

"This is something the community has wanted for a long time, as well as agencies. What we envision is hopefully bringing personnel and volunteers together to make this work.

"It would be great if we were flooded with calls from people to offer a building."

Parker said he has commitments from major agencies to occupy the Hilo center, including the Hawaii Center for Independent Living and state Department of Human Services Adult Services Branch.

He also hopes to have AARP there, people knowledgeable about Alzheimer's disease, possibly day respite for caregivers and a nutrition program.

Parker said he'd eventually like to see satellite facilities or at least caregiver resource libraries in rural districts that could tie in with the central facility.

"Just a lot is involved," he added. "It's exciting and kind of scary too. It's such a big project. If this goes the way we expect it to, it will probably be one of the premier ones in the country."

Kim said his in-laws now are in an assisted living facility in Kona but his caregiving experience, when they were living with him, "showed me how weak I am in certain things.

"I have total respect for people who do that, professional caregivers as well as those who do it for their family, the kind of strength and love you need to do it."

He said he has long been aware of the problems of finding information and resources for caregiving from friends and staff members.

"It makes you more and more aware of this major, and I stress major, social problem that I think is impacting not only the Hawaiian islands but all of us in America and other places."

When he talked to Parker, he said, "We got off the stick, so to speak," and a lot of people wanted to be part of it. "Everybody had visions of what it could be and what it should be to help both the caregiver and person needing care and everybody else.

"Hawaii island can be the template for the U.S.A., to show what we need to do and what we can do to service a segment of the population that's only going to get worse," the mayor said.

Kim said he doesn't want a facility "only in name" but a place where professionals "will take 'em by the hand when they walk in and not let go of that hand until they're served. That's the dream."