Children are particularly vulnerable to the negative health effects of sugary drinks, yet prior to a recent law aimed at improving healthy options for Hawaiʻi’s keiki, it was rare to find healthy beverages as a “default” option with kids’ meals in Hawaiʻi restaurants.
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa public health researchers researchers found that among a random sample of 64 restaurants across the state that offered kids’ meals, just two restaurants listed only healthy drinks such as water, low-fat milk or 100% juice as a default beverage option with the meal. The researchers conducted their study prior to the enactment of a law requiring restaurants to offer a healthy drink as the default choice.
“The hope is that Hawaiʻi‘s new law will nudge customers into healthier choices by making the healthy choice the easy choice,” said Meghan McGurk, who led the study and works as a researcher with the Office of Public Health Studies in the Thompson School of Social Work and Public Health. The paper is published in the Journal of Healthy Eating and Active Living (JHEAL).
Pandemic challenges
McGurk and her co-authors focused on restaurants that offered children’s meals in which the food is bundled together with a drink. Since January 1, 2020, Hawaiʻi restaurants offering such meals have been subject to the new law. The researchers conducted their study during November and December 2019 because they wanted to know how many restaurants were complying with the law before they were required to do so.
“Shockingly, sugar-sweetened beverages were offered as a default option for keiki by more than 60% of restaurants in the sample,” McGurk said. “This makes the success of this law more important.” Unfortunately, however, the pandemic has created challenges for the new law’s implementation. McGurk and her co-authors discussed the impacts of COVID-19 on the new law, and other health promotion efforts, in a separate paper also published recently in Global Health Promotion.
“There are many reasons it’s become more difficult during the pandemic for restaurants to offer healthy drink options,” McGurk said. “In order to even remain open, restaurants have had to spread out their tables and change employee procedures. They may be reluctant to change children’s items because kids’ meals do not generate much revenue and many restaurants are currently struggling due to the pandemic.”
In addition, many restaurants have turned to third-party delivery services to maintain their business, which adds fees that cut into restaurant profits. It is also unclear whether the menus posted on third-party sites fall under the scope of healthy beverage law.
Positive effects of pandemic
“However, the pandemic may also have positive effects on health promotion efforts,” McGurk said. Self-service beverage stations, which allow customers to refill cups with sugary drinks many times, are being discouraged to prevent viral spread. Also, new technology being used to social distance, such as tableside ordering apps, could help ensure healthy options are consistently offered as the default beverage for keiki.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of policies that improve access to healthy foods to prevent and manage chronic disease,” McGurk said. “We now have a great opportunity to improve restaurant and menu design and promote healthy food environments.”
McGurkʻs co-authors on the JHEAL paper include: Stephanie L. Cacal, Uyen Vu, Tetine Sentell and Catherine M. Pirkle of the Office of Public Health Studies, and Toby Beckelman, Jessica Lee and Alyssa Yang of the Hawaiʻi State Department of Health (DOH). Her co-authors on the commentary include Pirkle, Beckelman, Lee, Yang, Sentell and Katherine Inoue and Heidi Hansen-Smith of DOH.
This research is an example of UH Mānoa’s goal of Excellence in Research: Advancing the Research and Creative Work Enterprise (PDF), one of four goals identified in the 2015–25 Strategic Plan (PDF), updated in December 2020.
For many Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders with chronic health conditions, health interventions should include their family members or close friends, according to University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa public health research. The paper is published in Chronic Illness.
Researchers led by Tetine Sentell, director of the Office of Public Health Studies in the Thompson School of Social Work & Public Health, interviewed 22 adult patients who were hospitalized at The Queen’s Medical Center. The researchers asked the patients about the people in their lives who they turned to when they needed help with their health. Most patients were of Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander heritage.
“The patients in our study generally preferred to have family members or close friends involved in their care, to improve their health and reduce expensive hospitalizations,” said co-author Joy Agner, who worked on this study as a UH Mānoa graduate student. “We concluded that it is important to develop appropriate interventions that include the people who are important to patients, rather than expecting patients to go it alone.”
For the study, Sentell and her co-authors assessed each patient’s health literacy, which is their ability to understand and use healthcare information to make health decisions. Then, the patients answered questions about the people who helped them with their health, by doing things such as reminding them to take medications or assisting them in making health decisions. The researchers looked at the age, sex, education level and health knowledge of the people who helped the patients.
All of the patients in the study were hospitalized for conditions such as uncontrolled diabetes or heart disease—conditions that don’t usually require hospitalization if the patient receives high-quality, culturally-relevant primary care.
Results showed that most patients had at least one person who helped them manage their chronic health condition. Many saw the people who helped them with their health frequently, and usually saw them in person. Maintaining these relationships is an important consideration in the time of COVID-19.
“People’s social connections play a critical role in the management of their health,” Sentell said. “For Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, tapping into the power of these important connections can help to fight health disparities and build a strength-based approach.”
Not all patients wanted family or friends in their care. Future research should examine these patients’ preferences for their care and look for ways to improve their health.
Sentell and Agner’s co-authors include Deborah Taira, James Davis, Santhosh Mannem, Todd B. Seto, May Vawer and Thomas W. Valente.
The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened many of the problems faced by Native Hawaiian communities, but in a new paper, public health researchers detail the numerous efforts of Native Hawaiian-led groups that show these communities’ strength and resilience.
Since the start of the pandemic, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders have faced a higher risk of contracting COVID-19 than other groups in Hawaiʻi. They also endured high levels of unemployment and economic insecurity.
“This paper highlights the power of Native Hawaiian communities during these trying times,” said Jane Chung-Do, senior author and associate professor with University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Office of Public Health Studies within the Thompson School of Social Work & Public Health. The paper is published in the Journal of Indigenous Social Development.
Nonprofit efforts
The nonprofit group Ke Kula Nui O Waimānalo (KKNOW), whose aim is to promote health and support the self-sustainability of the Waimānalo community, has partnered with other nonprofits, businesses and governmental agencies to provide food for Waimānalo families. Since mid-March, the group has distributed 24,000 prepared meals and 3,550 boxes of fresh produce. KKNOW also delivered seeds and seedlings of traditional Hawaiian crops such as kalo (taro) and ʻuala (sweet potato) to families and community members who are vulnerable to food insecurity, economic instability and other social challenges.
“The goal of KKNOW is to build community resilience by helping fellow Native Hawaiians grow their own food before further disruptions strike,” said Kirk Dietschman, president of Ke Kula Nui O Waimānalo and a co-author of the paper.
Other nonprofits have also pitched in. The meals were prepared by chefs and students in a culinary training program, coordinated by the nonprofit KUPU Hawaiʻi. Meal delivery was led by Aloha Harvest, and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and the Waimānalo Market Co-Op, which provided the sites for the daily food distribution.
“These efforts succeeded because these Native Hawaiian-led groups anticipated the needs of the community and leveraged existing resources and relationships to meet those needs,” said Ilima Ho-Lastimosa, the lead author of the paper and a community coordinator at the Waimānalo Learning Center of the UH Mānoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR). “It is key that these organizations all have history with the community and have earned the trust of the members.”
Producing long-lasting results
Historically, efforts to address health disparities have used western-centric methods and have often failed to produce long-lasting results among Indigenous peoples, the researchers wrote in their paper. They concluded that place-based, culturally-grounded interventions show promising results with Indigenous peoples and will be needed to restore the health of Native Hawaiians.
The co-authors on the paper also include LeShay Keliʻiholokai, Kaua Kassebeer, Hae Kassebeer, Joseph Awa Kamai, Ikaika Rogerson, Kenneth Ho Jr., Manahā Ho, Kamalei Ho, and Denise Kaʻaʻa, of Ke Kula Nui O Waimānalo; Alexxus Ho, of the HawaiʻiPacific University College of Health and Society, and Theodore Radovich of CTAHR.
This research is an example of UH Mānoa’s goal of Excellence in Research: Advancing the Research and Creative Work Enterprise (PDF), one of four goals identified in the 2015–25 Strategic Plan (PDF), updated in December 2020.
Restrictions on flavored tobacco products are a great way to promote public health, and these restrictions work best if public health experts form partnerships with tobacco retailers, run intensive media campaigns and advocate for comprehensive bans on the products. That’s according to a study published in Tobacco Control from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Office of Public Health Studies researchers.
For the study, UH researchers interviewed experts from across the U.S. and Canada who had firsthand experience in passing, implementing or evaluating bans on flavored tobacco products. The researchers then analyzed the interviews for common themes.
“We wanted to identify the best ways to implement flavored tobacco policies,” said lead author Katey Peck, who was a UH Mānoa public health graduate student at the time of the study. Peck and her co-authors asked experts about the economic impacts, lessons learned and unforeseen consequences of implementing restrictions.
Study findings
One key finding was that comprehensive bans on the products were more effective and easier to enforce than partial bans. Partial bans might allow sales of menthol flavored products to continue or sales to proceed at retailers located within a certain distance from schools.
“The experts agreed that comprehensive bans are better because the rules are simpler. The sale of flavored tobacco products is not allowed, period,” Peck said. “With comprehensive bans, tobacco retailers don’t wind up in situations where they are trying to answer questions from customers.”
Another important finding was that media campaigns that raise awareness of the health impacts of flavored tobacco products and educate the public on the details of any new policy proposals were essential to successfully implementing new policies.
“Flavored tobacco products are risky, and the experts we talked to emphasized the importance of providing accurate, factual information to the public about the known risks of these products,” Peck said.
The experts also said public health advocates should treat tobacco retailers as partners in establishing new policies, rather than as businesses that need to be regulated. Moreover, tapping the knowledge held by retailers, who encounter the tobacco-buying public every day, can help public health advocates to create appropriate educational materials for their local populations.
“The regulation of flavored tobacco products is a new and growing area of public health,” Peck added. “Our study showed that gathering information from experts and asking them to identify and share their ideas about best practices has potential to improve the implementation and efficacy of flavored tobacco policies.”
Peck’s co-authors on the study included Rebekah Rodericks, Tetine Sentell and Catherine Pirkle, of UH Mānoa’s Office of Public Health Studies; and Lola Irvin, Lila Johnson, Jill Tamashiro and Lance Ching, of the Hawaiʻi State Department of Health.
Holistic cultural practices that foster a connection to ʻāina (land) are important in improving the health of Kānaka Maoli (Indigenous Peoples of Hawaiʻi), according to a new study from public health researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. The findings were published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
For Kānaka Maoli, practices such as growing their own food, taking care of ʻāina, and cleansing through hiʻuwai (bathing in the sea or a stream), are needed for physical, spiritual, emotional and mental health.
UH Mānoa Office of Public Health Studies researchers LeShay Keliʻiholokai, Samantha Keaulana, Mapuana C.K. Antonio and their colleagues conducted interviews and small focus groups with 12 Kānaka Maoli adults living in Waimānalo, including eight kūpuna (elders), to learn about Kānaka Maoli perspectives on health.
“Imbalances, such as disconnection between ʻāinaand Kānaka, create maʻi (sickness) in Kānaka Maoli,” said Keliʻiholokai, who is also a board member of Ke Kula Nui O Waimānalo and Waimānalo Limu Hui.
The researchers analyzed the interview transcripts to identify key themes. Results showed that the participants viewed themselves as part of ʻāina.
“Kānaka Maoli view themselves as deeply connected with ʻāina, and there is no separating ʻāina from Kānaka,” said Antonio, an assistant professor of Native Hawaiian and Indigenous health. “The connection between ʻāina and people is spiritual and reciprocal, and important to well-being and resilience.”
ʻĀina as physical, emotional and spiritual healing
A second theme that emerged was the Kānaka Maoli view of ʻāina as physical, emotional and spiritual healing. The participants said they could innately tell when a person was not connected to ʻāina, and when a person did not mālama (take care of) ʻāina. The intergenerational knowledge of the role of ʻāina in health was passed down as wisdom from the kūpuna to the rest of the ʻohana(family).
A third theme was that Kānaka Maoli view colonization as disruptive to their values and their connections with ʻāina. Addressing the health disparities that stem from colonization will require healing the displacement and disconnection from ʻāina felt by Kānaka Maoli.
“Colonization resulted in negative impacts from outsiders and foreigners that led to attacks and desecration of ʻāina, and therefore, to the health of Kānaka Maoli,” said Keaulana, a doctoral student UH Mānoa’s public health program. “Community initiatives are needed for community healing.”
Co-authors on the study include Ikaika Rogerson, Kirk Deitschman, Kenneth Ho Jr. and H. Ilima Ho-Lastimosa of Ke Kula Nui O Waimānalo; Joseph Awa Kamai, Luana Albinio, Dawn Kepa and J. Kahaulahilahi Vegas of Waimānalo Pono Research Hui; Kilauea Wilson of the Waimānalo Community; and Kuaiwi Laka Makua and Jane J. Chung-Do of UH Mānoa’s Office of Public Health Studies.
Chronic diseases typically associated with middle age and older adulthood are common in young people needing hospital care in Hawaiʻi, according to public health researchers from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. More than a quarter of hospitalized youth and 12 percent of youth who visited an emergency department had at least one chronic condition such as diabetes, chronic kidney disease or high blood pressure. The study was published in Preventing Chronic Disease, which is sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“It’s likely that our results reveal only the tip of the iceberg, because chronic conditions are often underdiagnosed in young people,” said Tetine Sentell, lead author on the study and director of the Office of Public Health Studies (OPHS) in the Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work. “Importantly, we found that the rates of chronic conditions start to increase at age 9, which means we have to start early with our prevention efforts. Chronic disease management programs should be designed with the needs of children, teens and young adults in mind.”
“Health care providers need to be aware that chronic disease is common among youth needing hospitalization and should work closely with them and their families to effectively manage these conditions,” said Catherine Pirkle, an associate professor in OPHS and co-author of the study. “Efforts are needed building from community strengths, knowledge and relationships across the lifespan, starting as early as pregnancy and throughout childhood, to prevent chronic disease.”
At-risk groups
Young Native Hawaiians appear at particular risk in youth and early adulthood. Of all hospitalized children or young adult patients, 25 percent were Native Hawaiian. However, among the hospitalized patients who had asthma, 38 percent were Native Hawaiian, and among those with diabetes, 31 percent were Native Hawaiian. Higher rates of chronic conditions were also seen in other Pacific Islanders and Filipinos. Of all hospitalized patients, 13 percent were other Pacific Islander, and 15 percent were Filipino. But among the hospitalized patients with hypertension, 21 percent were other Pacific Islander and 18 percent were Filipino. Of the hospitalized patients with diabetes, 19 percent were other Pacific Islander and 16 percent were Filipino. These are higher than population averages for these groups.
Previous research has shown that Native Hawaiians, Filipinos and other Pacific Islanders were at risk for chronic disease at earlier ages in adulthood than other racial/ethnic groups. This new study quantifies how this trend is reaching into youth.
“This information will help us take next steps to addressing chronic disease earlier in life,” said May Okihiro, a pediatrician at the Waiʻanae Coast Comprehensive Health Center and assistant professor in pediatrics at UH Mānoa’s John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM). “Culturally grounded interventions, such as those that include community and family and connect people with the land or ocean may be relevant for reducing chronic disease rates in Native Hawaiian, other Pacific Islander and Filipino populations.”
For the study, Sentell and her co-authors pulled data on all inpatient and emergency department visits statewide for children and young adults ages 5 to 29 during 2015 and 2016. After excluding visits related to pregnancy, they analyzed data from 13,514 inpatient stays and 228,548 emergency department visits over the two-year period. The authors were also able to estimate the costs associated with these hospitalizations and the proportion paid by Medicaid.
Sentell and Pirkle’s co-authors on the study included Michelle Quensell, L. Brooke Keliikoa and Émilie Corriveau, all of OPHS; So Yung Choi, JABSOM; and Lance Ching, Hawaiʻi State Department of Health.
Remote healthcare is increasingly critical in the time of COVID-19. Five health clinics in Hawaiʻi recently launched programs to help patients monitor their blood pressure at home, and these programs were successful in addressing patients’ health and psychosocial needs, according to public health researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
The clinics were all federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), which serve many patients below the federal poverty level. The researchers worked in a collaborative partnership to study the programs to find out what barriers the programs faced, and what factors contributed to the programs’ success in enrolling patients. The paper is published in Preventing Chronic Disease.
“We know that these programs can help people to substantially decrease their blood pressure, but there is no clear protocol for starting programs like these,” said David Stupplebeen, who led the study and recently completed his doctoral degree with the UH Mānoa Office of Public Health Studies.
“These programs could provide a great tool for providers to monitor their patients’ health at a distance during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Stupplebeen said.
For the study, the researchers interviewed nine healthcare providers who worked in the blood pressure monitoring programs. They asked how the providers went about identifying and enrolling program participants, and how the patients were monitored.
“Our analysis showed the FQHCs were not just instrumental in supporting these programs, but creative in how they leveraged their existing programs, like exercise or other lifestyle-change programs,” Stupplebeen said. “Their team-based care model allowed for multiple staff touchpoints in order to work toward meeting patients’ needs.”
Clinical changes
Moreover, these programs successfully integrated clinical changes through patients monitoring their blood pressure with important lifestyle education on diet, including menu planning, food preparation demonstrations and nutritionist referrals.
The researchers found that the programs’ main goals were to confirm a hypertension diagnosis and to help patients achieve control over their blood pressure, meaning bring their blood pressure back down into a healthier range. Federal data from health centers show that only about two-thirds (64 percent) of patients at Hawaiʻi FQHCs with high blood pressure had achieved blood pressure control in 2017.
The barriers the programs faced included limited ability to reach patients who were homeless or had mental illness, and the lack of a standardized, pre-written curriculum for such programs. The program staff had built the programs by combining materials from a variety of sources.
“Our study highlights the innovation of FQHCs and their capacity to make the most of limited resources to support the health and well-being of our communities,” said L. Brooke Keliʻikoa, an assistant specialist with the UH Mānoa Office of Public Health Studies who also worked on the study.
This project is part of the Healthy Hawaiʻi Initiative partnership.
Stupplebeen and Keliʻikoa’s co-authors on the paper included Tetine L. Sentell, and Catherine Pirkle, also of the UH Mānoa Office of Public Health Studies; Blythe M. I. Nett and Lindsey S. K. Ilagan, of the Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Division of the Hawaiʻi State Department of Health; Bryan Juan, of the Hawaiʻi Primary Care Association; and Jared Medeiros, of the Lānaʻi Community Health Center.
Preventing and managing chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease remain especially critical during the COVID-19 pandemic. For 20 years, the Healthy Hawaiʻi Initiative has been working to build healthier, more equitable communities and helping to reduce health disparities related to chronic diseases. Deaths due to heart disease decreased by 34 percent, stroke by 44 percent, and lung cancer by 10 percent during this time. Smoking prevalence among public high school students dropped by 72 percent over two decades, from 29.2 percent to 8.1 percent.
Now, as diabetes, heart disease and other conditions are associated with increased risk for COVID-19, it is important to maintain these gains.
In a paper published in BMC Public Health, researchers from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Office of Public Health Studies report how the Healthy Hawaiʻi Initiative was created in 2000 with tobacco settlement funds as a statewide effort to promote health-supporting environments through systems and policy change.
The Healthy Hawaiʻi Initiative started with a vision to make “the healthy choice the easiest choice,” for all Hawaiʻi residents, the researchers wrote. The initiative built relationships between community members, lawmakers and stakeholders across the islands and had many notable policy and project successes, including Complete Streets policies, the Choose Healthy Now ad campaign, and the Hawaiʻi Health Data Warehouse.
“Making health a shared value requires a cultural shift, and we believe the Healthy Hawaiʻi Initiative has contributed a new understanding that can be useful to long-term public health initiatives,” said Catherine Pirkle, one of the authors of the report and an associate professor with the UH Mānoa Office of Public Health Studies.
Long-term vision
For the new paper, Pirkle and her co-authors interviewed 10 public health leaders and community members who have worked on the initiative. The goal was to better understand the history, achievements and challenges of the Healthy Hawaiʻi Initiative.
The interviews revealed that a clear, long-term vision of health in the state was essential to the Healthy Hawaiʻi Initiative’s successes. Moreover, by developing long-term relationships with lawmakers, building strong, publically-available data surveillance tools and telling compelling stories, the initiative garnered support for health promotion programs.
“The success of the Healthy Hawaiʻi Initiative over the course of 20 years can be seen through the change and growth of the program since its creation and vision,” said Tetine Sentell, director of the UH Office of Public Health Studies and senior author of the paper.
Today, the Healthy Hawaiʻi Initiative continues to support the prevention and management of chronic disease, including supporting culturally-tailored programs relevant to Hawaiʻi’s diversity and encouraging communities to take care of their chronic disease even in the stress and confusion of COVID-19.
“Addressing health and prevention focusing on our communities will continue to be the Healthy Hawaiʻi Initiative’s focus,” Sentell said. “We want to turn theoretical ideas into health practices and promote and sustain long-term change throughout the islands.”
Pirkle and Sentell’s co-authors on the paper include Opal Vanessa Buchthal, assistant professor of the UH Mānoa Office of Public Health Studies; Joy Agner, of the UH Mānoa Department of Community and Cultural Psychology; Lola Irvin, of the Hawaiʻi State Department of Health; Jay E. Maddock, of Texas A&M University; Jessica Yamauchi, of the Hawaiʻi Public Health Institute; and Ranjani Starr, of the Hawaiʻi State Department of Health and Human Services.
Native Hawaiians who have higher levels of resilience may also have better health, according to new public health research from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
Researchers led by Mapuana C.K. Antonio, an assistant professor in Native Hawaiian and indigenous health at the Office of Public Health Studies in the Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work, developed a new scale to measure resilience in Native Hawaiians. The scale was included in a survey of 124 Native Hawaiian adults living on Hawaiian Homestead Lands. The researchers compared the participants’ resilience scores with their self-reported health.
The findings are published online in the journal Behavioral Medicine.
“Resilience is complicated to measure,” Antonio said. For the new study, she and her co-authors incorporated scales that expanded on traditional measures of resilience, which look at a person’s ability to overcome adversity and persevere in times of difficulty. Traditional measures have generally looked only at internal traits, such self-reliance.
The researchers developed a new measure that takes into account the indigenous perspective of resilience, which places high value on relationships. “It is important to consider that for Native Hawaiians, health and resilience involves cultural identity and a sense of lōkahi, or harmony between the physical, spiritual, social and emotional self, and extends to include the outside world or environment,” said Antonio.
The researchers tested out their new scale and found it had good validity. They also found that the participants in their survey who scored higher on the resilience scale also reported higher levels of general health, mental health and physical functioning.
Native Hawaiians face much adversity that stems from colonization and historical trauma, including discrimination, health disparities and lower socioeconomic status compared with other racial and ethnic groups. “Our findings suggest that resilience may slightly mediate the effect that adversity has on health,” Antonio said.
The new scales can be used in future research on Native Hawaiian health that uses a strength-based approach, meaning research that focuses on the positive aspects of the community, rather than targeting deficits.
“A multi-faceted measure of resilience is needed to promote better health outcomes for Native Hawaiians,” added Antonio.
Antonio’s co-authors on the study included Earl S. Hishinuma, Claire Townsend Ing, Fumiaki Hamagami and Joseph Keaweʻaimoku Kaholokula of the John A. Burns School of Medicine; Adrienne Dillard, B. Puni Kekauoha and Cappy Solatorio of Kula no na Poʻe Hawaiʻi; Kevin Cassel of the University of HawaiʻiCancer Center; and Kathryn L. Braun, also of the Office of Public Health Studies.
To help protect essential workers who provide mental and behavioral health services and their clients including those experiencing homelessness, the Hawaiʻi Department of Health and the Behavioral Health and Homelessness Statewide Unified Response Group (BHHSURG) with support from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa are coordinating the donation and the distribution of donated personal protective equipment (PPE) across the state. So far, more than 13,000 surgical masks, among other items, have been donated to “resilience hubs,” on Oʻahu.
Three nonprofits on Oʻahu are operating the resilience hubs: KROC Center in Kapolei, KEY Project in Kahaluʻu and the YMCA in Kalihi.
“UH Mānoa has played a role in developing infrastructure for the Resilience Hubs to distribute PPEacross the island,” said Victoria Fan, UH Mānoa associate professor of health policy at the Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work. “In partnership with DOH, UH developed an inventory management app along with the standard operating procedures for warehousing. Given limited PPE stock, we also developed and implemented an algorithm to prioritize PPE to providers with the highest infection risk.”
As of May 25, Oʻahu’s resilience hubs have received: 13,153 surgical and cloth masks, 7,069 N95 masks, 9,035 disposable gloves, 2,023 goggles, 823 homemade masks, 590 medical gowns and 212 face masks.
“A partnership of DOH, Hawaiʻi Community Foundation, the Hubs, UH and several organizational partners, we are appreciative of everyone’s support who make our collective achievements possible,” said Rebecca Choi of the Hawaiʻi Department of Health Behavioral Health Administration.
Of these donations, UH facilitated a PPE donation from Tzu Chi USA to the Resilience Hubs. “With UH‘s help, we appreciated the opportunity to donate 10,000 surgical and N95 masks, 2,000 cloth masks with filters, 2,000 goggles and 480 medical gowns to this public-private partnership between the Department of Health and the Resilience Hubs to effectively reach providers,” said Jackson Chen, CEO for Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, USA based in San Dimas, California.
To date, distributions ordered for 80 provider organizations will help keep many essential workers and their patients safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. More PPE are needed for behavioral health and homelessness service providers working across the state.
“This PPE will go to providers across the state who are working with individuals and families and communities who are struggling with homelessness and behavioral health issues,” said Eddie Mersereau, deputy director of the Behavioral Health Administration. “The public sector, the private sector, and the community, when they get together for a common cause, can accomplish great things. When we unite in a common cause, there is no limit to what we can achieve.”
PPE donations needed
Donations of homemade and unopened store-bought PPE such as masks, goggles, gloves and face shields are needed. In addition, the resilience hubs are now accepting sanitation supplies including bleach, disinfecting wipes, paper towels and toilet paper.
To donate, items can be dropped off at the following times and locations:
KROC Center in Kapolei
Drop-off hours: 9 a.m.–noon, or by appointment
Phone: (808) 682-5505
KEY Project
Drop-off hours: 9 a.m.–noon, or by appointment
Phone: (808) 239-5777
Kalihi YMCA
Drop-off hours: 9–11 a.m., or by appointment
Phone: (808) 848-2494
