Kamaaina who have grown up in Hawaii, especially those in rural Oahu and the neighbor islands, know that commercial sugar plantations and cane burning have been a part of our island culture since the 1840s. Suburban and urban growth in Hawaii have put residential developments in close proximity to sugar cane fields. This has resulted ...
Read More Sugar Cane Burning in Hawaii
Ola Lokahi
Taking care of those without a home is a growing challenge. It is estimated that for every 100,000 residents in Hawaii, about 45 are homeless. Those who are chronically homeless often have mental health disorders and/or struggle with substance abuse. This makes these individuals especially vulnerable and in need of support. While others may look upon ...
Read More Meeting the Needs of Oahu’s Chronically Homeless
The Hawaii State Department of Health’s Hazard Evaluation and Emergency Response (HEER) Office team continues to work closely with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to oversee the cleanup of a 44,000-gallon jet fuel release from a tank farm facility near Sand Island that occurred in January, 2015. According to Keith Kawaoka, deputy director of ...
Read More Cleanup of Jet Fuel Release at Sand Island Facility Still Underway
Evidence shows that caring for moms during their pregnancy and for their keiki during their first few years of life, especially those with low incomes, helps improve the health of both the moms and their children, prevents child abuse and neglect, encourages positive parenting, promotes child development and enhances school-readiness. That’s why the federal government ...
Read More Hawaii Receives Million HHS Grant to Expand Home Visiting Program
In Hawaii, one person commits suicide every two days. In fact, data collected from 2009 to 2013 shows suicide was the most common cause of fatal injuries among Hawaii residents, accounting for over one-quarter of all fatal injuries. The Hawaii Department of Health is taking action to empower professionals and the general public to prevent ...
Read More Register Today for Prevent Suicide Conference on April 30, 2015
Hawaii youth who have experienced trauma and need mental health and other services but may have difficulty accessing care from traditional sources now have an easier way to receive the help they need. Friends of Children’s Mental Health, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, provides another way for the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Division (CAMHD) of ...
Read More Hawaii Department of Health Establishes Friends of Children’s Mental Health; Kaiser Permanente Gives ,000 Grant to Support Programs
Hawaii has the highest percentage of top-rated long-term care facilities in the nation, according to the U.S. Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), despite the federal agency’s increased stringent standards and a recently revised rating system. According to CMS’s website Nursing Home Compare, 18 of Hawaii’s 46 nursing homes, or 39 percent, received five ...
Read More Hawaii: Best Nursing Homes in the Nation
Stepping Up Protection for Hawaii Patients: Department of Health Supports Enhanced Background Checks
As an advocate for the health of Hawaii’s people, the Hawaii State Department of Health is always seeking ways to improve the safe delivery of care. That is why the Department of Health strongly supports an administration bill currently in the legislature that seeks to expand the department’s authority to conduct thorough background checks on ...
Read More Stepping Up Protection for Hawaii Patients: Department of Health Supports Enhanced Background Checks
Hawaii residents can now track the real-time status of their online orders for birth certificates and marriage/civil union certificates. The Department of Health’s Office of Health Status Monitoring launched the improved online ordering and tracking system last week. The website address is https://vitrec.ehawaii.gov. “The Hawaii Department of Health issues nearly 300,000 certified copies of birth, ...
Read More New and Improved! Vital Records Online Ordering and Tracking System
Offering healthier food choices is good business. That’s the experience of blind vendors of the Choose Healthy Now program, a pilot project in six state and federal government vending sites on Oahu. Choose Healthy Now helps employees identify healthy, moderately healthy, or unhealthy snacks and drinks by labeling them with green, yellow and red stickers ...
Read More Curbing Obesity: Offering Healthy Snacks Makes Financial Sense
Hawaii residents and tourists alike may soon have a new, lower-cost and healthier way to travel while in Hawaii. They will be able to borrow bikes for short, one-way trips, using bikes at various stations throughout a broad area of Honolulu. The bikeshare system will be implemented by Bikeshare Hawaii, a nonprofit organization created by ...
Read More Hawaii Preparing to Launch Bikeshare Program in Honolulu
As Hawaii’s aging population continues to grow, legislators and government agencies continue to face different challenges. The latest one: A wife is in a community care foster family home paying for her care out of her own pocket or through private insurance, also known as “private pay.” Her husband, who would like to join her ...
Read More A Simpler, More Compassionate Approach to a Complex Dilemma
Every day is a celebration of progress for the more than 1,300 men and women with severe and persistent mental illness who participate in Hawaii Clubhouse Coalition. The clubhouses, which are funded by the Hawaii Department of Health’s Adult Mental Health Division, are safe, cost-effective approaches to help people integrate back into the community after ...
Read More Hawaii Clubhouse Coalition Gives Others a New Start at Life
When it comes to Hawaii statistics on smoking and tobacco use, the facts speak for themselves: Hawaii now holds the distinction of having the third lowest adult smoking rate in the nation. From 2000 to 2013, Hawaii conservatively saved more than $586 million on direct health care costs because adults, youth and pregnant women quit smoking and/or ...
Read More Are Hawaii’s Tobacco Prevention Programs Being Put at Risk?
The Hawaii Department of Health is launching the Hawaii Smiles program for third graders in 64 public and charter elementary schools across Hawaii to collect representative data on the status of oral health of children in the state. More than 2,000 children across the state will have the opportunity to receive a free, one-minute dental ...
Read More Dental Public Health Surveillance for Children
Although measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000 as a result of a very successful vaccination program, the highly contagious respiratory viral illness has recently resurfaced. Measles Outbreak A multistate measles outbreak associated with travel to Disney resorts in California has been ongoing since December 2014; as of February 9, 2015, 114 individuals ...
Read More Measles Makes a Comeback
On average, Hawaii’s teens drink 8.6 sugary drinks per week — more than any other age group. That translates into the average Hawaii teen DRINKING 40 pounds of sugar a year! And this puts Hawaii teens at risk for gaining up to 10 POUNDS in one year. The Hawaii Department of Health launched the “Rethink Your Drink” media campaign ...
Read More And the “Rethink Your Drink” Winners Are…
Terry Corpuz, a member of the Department of Health’s Hazard Evaluation and Emergency (HEER) Response team, served as a member of the flyover crew to inspect the ocean following the recent tugboat incident 2.5 miles off Barbers Point. He joined representatives from the U.S. Coast Guard and the responsible party to assess the impact of an estimated 75,000-gallon diesel fuel release when ...
Read More Tugboat Aerial Assessment Team
The Hazard Evaluation and Emergency Response (HEER) Office of the Hawaii State Department of Health has recently been hard at work to respond to emergencies in our community. Last week, HEER personnel provided oversight of the response activities related to a 42,000-gallon release of jet fuel from an above ground storage tank at the Airport Service Group ...
Read More HEER Office:
Hawaii’s Unsung Heroes
The Hawaii Department of Health continues to make significant progress in conducting inspections of restaurants and other food service establishments since the launch of a placard program in July 2014. The program evaluates food establishments and posts color placards to indicate if the inspection revealed any food–borne illness risk factor violations. On Oahu alone, there are ...
Read More Inspections of Hawaii Food Establishments Increasing