Dear local and state candidates:
On Sept. 10, The Garden Island produced an article that discussed an “epidemic” that was developing on our island in regards to spiking suicide rates. According to the article, statistics illustrated a dramatic increase of Kauai resident suicides, which had doubled within just one year in comparison to the annual suicide average of prior years.
Most recently, this article’s message feels even more relevant. Within the past two months, I’ve witnessed a multitude of different communities impacted by the outcome of victims suffering from mental health who’ve lost the hope for relief, stability and the future.
As a result, they’ve taken their lives. Being a social worker, mental/behavioral health practitioner, and local community member I feel devastated and depleted. I am not the only one.
I was asked, “Why does this keep happening?” As we reflect on our island’s personalized epidemic, it appears as though no visible progress has been made since it first surfaced last year.
By simply completing a general online search of “suicide statistics,” it identifies a clear link between mental illness and suicide. It also acknowledges that individuals experiencing suicidal thoughts should be seen by trained mental health professionals.
The Garden Island article stated, “Clearly, many Kauai residents suffer from severe depression and there are not enough treatment resources to reach all. … Police are frustrated by the situation, but the department realizes that mental health resources are in desperately short supply on Kauai and the treatment community is doing the best it can.”
With no practical solutions that follow these statements, this is no longer a sufficient response for the people of Kauai. As a licensed social worker who assists one of Kauai’s most vulnerable populations, it is apparent that there are inadequate mental and behavioral health services for our island’s residents.
Although publicly addressed a year ago, Kauai still is in desperate need of mental health services but ironically has been losing these services. A primary state funded mental health agencies on island that works directly with our judicial system, private/public health care offices, and community-based organizations, is currently in the process of discharging over 200 clients/patients who met the Adult Mental Health Division eligibility criteria.
These clients are now losing services that include psychiatric treatment/medication management, case management, psychosocial rehabilitation, housing assistance, and more. These clients being unloaded are our community’s cooks, fishermen, teachers, performers, friends, makua, kupuna and keiki. These are the ones most vulnerable to suicide, and they are now losing the scarce services our island has for them.
So while there is an acknowledgment of mental health services severely needed and an ongoing suicide epidemic within our community, services are being cut even more. Why is there not more funding being allocated for appropriate mental/behavioral health services and qualified professionals especially during such a crisis?
Just because services are being dropped by local state agencies, doesn’t mean our mental health population has gotten smaller or healthier. It means intensified severity of unmet mental health needs for folks we love and know. So then what are we supposed to do as a community?
An emphasis on community suicide awareness has been emphasized, yet it is an unbalanced response to such an epidemic. Is this truly the answer — to take away formal services and teach our communities how to be more aware? As a mental/behavioral health practitioner and community member, that responsibility feels like a defeating expectation. Indeed, we are a proactive and interconnected island that takes care of each other.
We do this with love and compassion. However, as a solution for our suffering loved ones who need formal services it is politically, socially and ethically inappropriate. According to these means, we limit the tangible resources that mental/behavioral health professionals are able to provide for the mental health population and subsequently substitute it by providing the community with the tools.
Candidates who will represent our/your communities, what will you do with the authority and elected voice we give you? What will you do to see, feel, and meet the needs of not only our members who suffer from mental illness and suicidality, but also all of us suffering from loss of loved ones who’ve passed on due to unmet mental health needs? Can you feel our pain? Our desperate need for qualified professionals, especially psychiatrists, social workers, clinicians and behavioral therapists?
We no longer accept the revolving door of traveling psychiatrists that read a chart, make a prescription, work on their tan, and then move on and out. We are a community that is not getting our needs met! So please, SHOW us! How will you dedicate your time to battle our communal and systemic issues of suicide, lack of available services for our mental health population, and better cultural support for our grieving Kauai residents. If you’re ever stuck on implementable solutions, there’s a few of us with some ideas.
Mahalo for your commitment to Kauai’s communities that support you and also look to you with our systemic and communal needs.
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Franci Dávila, MSW, LSW, is a resident of Kapaa.
