Reason for Need

According to health statistics gathered through local, state, and federal data bases, Native Hawaiians are at high risk for the major chronic diseases and demonstrate extremely high rates of these diseases resulting in high mortality rates. Many of the diseases, i.e. diabetes, cardiovascular disease, renal disease, obesity, cancer, asthma, and others, can be prevented or progression to complications delayed through preventive measures of risk factors. Treatment modalities are needed, such as the dialysis facility, the diabetes care management program at Na Pu`uwai's Clinical Services, and other medical facilities on-island. An equally important need is prevention programs. The fitness and wellness center operated by Na Pu`uwai need adequate resources to provide exercise options for general fitness as well as for preserving cardiovascular health. For service delivery, telecommunications are needed to access training programs for the community and staff and to link Na Pu`uwai's five different sites and programs under the project.

EC Support

With the ability of the dialysis facility on “topside” Molokai to meet the needs of its patients, EC funds have been used provide training to enable services to be expanded to serve the Hansen's Disease patients residing in Kalaupapa Patients. In addition, to meet the growing demand to serve additional patients, EC funds have supported an upgrade and expansion of the water filtration system at the Kaunakakai facility.

Photo: Uncle Henry, a long time patient of dialysis treatment. Courtesy of Dialysis Facility and Uncle Henry's 'Ohana