LIHU‘E — There may be new life breathed into the Adolescent Treatment and Healing Center.
State leaders, with community and county partners, announced $1.3 million in the state’s fiscal-year 2022 budget for the nonprofit Kaua‘i Adolescent Treatment Center for Healing, which will include a comprehensive continuum of services for adolescents.
“Kaua‘i has the highest incidence of teenage suicide in the state, and these trends have increased significantly over the course of this pandemic,” said state Senate President Ron Kouchi of Lihu‘e in a statement.
For the last year, the facility has been commandeered for pandemic use, as a potential place to quarantine or isolate individuals.
But the mission to continue healing youth has continued.
Councilmembers Bernard Carvalho Jr. and KipuKai Kuali‘i said this funding has opened a door to open a place for the youth.
“We realize we’re still facing the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the center continues to be used by the state Department of Health as an isolation quarantine site,” Carvalho and Kuali‘i said in a joint statement.
“However, we both feel that it’s just as important to our island to end any further delay and get our Adolescent Treatment and Healing Center up and running.”
The treatment and healing center was a priority for the late Mayor Bryan Baptiste and then-mayor Carvalho’s administrations. The center’s initial purpose was to provide long-term care and outpatient treatment for adolescents with mental-health or substance-abuse disorders.
The center, which never became fully operational, broke ground in 2018 on a 5.8-acre plot from Grove Farm in Kapaia to be the first on-island facility of its kind in over two decades, to replace an adolescent treatment facility that was destroyed.
“This location is so special,” Carvalho said Friday afternoon. “It’s a place for healing with the land.”
In October 2019, the county awarded the contract for services to Hope Treatment Services, an O‘ahu-based, mental-health-care provider, that was eventually let go for making too little progress toward opening the center, according to the county.
“Once the final plans and partners are in place very shortly, we’re calling on our county and community partners to work with the state to find another suitable facility for any further isolation and quarantine needed, also making sure we provide plenty enough time for them to demobilize and vacate safely,” Carvalho and Kuali‘i said.
“Finding an alternate site for the state Department of Health is crucial if we’re going to get our healing center open in the next few months and before the holidays,” they said.
A February 2017 dedication deed granted by Grove Farm to the County of Kaua‘i states that the facility is “solely for use for adult and adolescent health-care purposes, unless (Grove Farm) provide written consent to a change in use.”
The deed also stipulates that if the county were to not use the facility for two years, “the premises shall immediately and without re-entry revert” to Grove Farm.
“With the support of Grove Farm, the Hawai‘i Health (Systems) Corporation, the Department of Education, the Kaua‘i Humane Society and other community partners, I’m pleased that we were able to secure funds in the state budget to help KATCH achieve their goal of creating a world-class facility for those in need,” Kouchi said, acknowledging fellow Kaua‘i state legislators, Reps. Nadine Nakamura, Dee Morikawa and Jimmy Tokioka.
“Our sincerest hope is that this could happen in the next few months and as soon as possible,” Carvalho said, looking forward to an announcement in the near future with these nonprofits and community members.
The Office of the Mayor and Grove Farm did not provide comment for this story.
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Sabrina Bodon, public safety and government reporter, can be reached at 245-0441 or sbodon@thegardenisland.com.
