Hawaiʻi Island is expanding its capacity for youth healthcare thanks to a new $2 million grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.
The funding will go to the West Hawaiʻi Region Hospital Foundation, which will establish an adolescent inpatient behavioral health unit at the Kona Community Hospital, making it the only one of its kind outside of Oʻahu.
The Kona hospital’s existing behavioral health department, Kalani Ola, has been focused on adult care since it opened in 2001. Under the grant, it will be remodeled to include five pediatric beds, which will boost Hawaiʻis overall adolescent behavioral health capacity by 17%.
Clayton McGhan, the CEO of WHRHF, said this is an important step toward increasing accessible local healthcare, without having to rely on traveling to Oʻahu for crucial care. He added that many youth patients have to wait upwards of four to five weeks for a bed to open on Oʻahu before they can be treated.
“When a bed does open up, they're flown by air ambulance, separating them from their families. That is not acceptable to us,” McGhan said. “This grant allows us to care for our community right here at home, and for that we're grateful.”
Organizers said indoor and outdoor common areas, staff training, IT infrastructure and culturally resonant practices will be supported by the new funding.
