Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 4, Number 1, 1 Ianuali 1987 — He Mau Ninau Ola [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

He Mau Ninau Ola

Some Health Questions 6y Kekuni Blaisdell, M.D.

Ninau: E kauka, when you E Ola Mau folks met with us in September, 1985, you said you would report back to us on health programs for us Wai'anae Hawaiians, What happened? Nothing paha? Pane: Minamina you have not been kept fully informed. E Kala mai Ia'u.

Here is an updated ho'ike pokole (summary) of health matters e pili ana i ka po'e Hawai'i ma Wai'anae as known to me. - In December, 1985, the E Ola Mau Native Hawaiian Health Needs Study Report was submitted to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Region IX San Francisco office. In March, 1986, E Ola Mau was formally organized as native Hawaiian health professionals no ka Lahui Hawai'i to promote implementation of the report's recommendations. In May, 1986, Alu Like's Winona Rubin, OHA's Kamaki Kanahele and E Ola Mau's Kauka Emmett Aluli, Kauka Naupaka Andrade and Claire Ku'uleilani Hughes testified in Wakinekona for grants to native Hawaiian organizations for health promotion and disease prevention; establishment of eight native Hawaiian community health centers; health scholarships for native Hawaiians; and contracts to native Hawaiian organizations to enhanee accessibility to health care services for native Hawaiians. The bill passed the Senate on Oct. 16, but died in the House Subcommittee on Health and Environment before it could be considered when the 99th Congress adjourned Oct. 18. Congressman Daniel Akaka's office reports that current plans are for the bill to be reintroduced in both houses when the 100th Congress convenes in January, 1987. It is hoped that hearings will be conducted in Hawai'i. No laila, you may have the manawa kupono (opportunity) to voice your ninau a me mana'o on those

occasions. 'Oiai, some loeal Hawaiian communities have already initiated their own health programs. Na Pu'uowai on Moloka'i has completed its survey of cardiovascular risk factors on 250 homesteaders on that 'ailana, as reported in this eolumn in July, 1986. Ho'ola Lahui Hawai'i on West Kaua'i has started a community health education program with bilingual ('olelo Hawai'i a me 'olelo haole) health aide May Keale Adams from Ni'ihau, assisted by Kauka Lambert Lee Loy, Kauka Hiram Young, Kumu Ilei Beniamina a Col. Kamakaopua Yim. In your Wai'anae, as you know paha, a cancer research pilot project was completed for the Cancer Center of Hawai'i on 50 native Hawaiian adialts, according to Doris Segal Matsunaga of the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center. Specially-trained native Hawaiian interviewers and nutrition aides were engaged to elicit diet data, and to help with collection of mimi (urine) specimens for mutagens and koko (blood) specimens for oncogenes. According to Hale Ola Ho'opakolea, a native Hawaiian healing resource center in Nanakuli on your Wai'anae Coast, plans are progressing for a pilot native Hawaiian maternal infant health project by the Waianae Family Life and Adolescent Program and the Bishop Estate/Kamehameha Schools. Wai'anae, Waimanalo and Kalihi-Palama are targeted in a community health promotion proposal submitted by a Hawai'i Consortium to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The goal is to reduce heart disease , cancer and diabetes through health education on nutrition, antismoking and physical fitness by paraprofessional health workers, neighborhood volunteers and TV. Wai'anae Rap Center's director Kauila Clark reports that Congressional Omnibus Drug Act funds should be forthcoming to the Center. Under the act, according to Rep. Akaka's office, the U.S. Secretary of Education will enter into contracts with organizations principally serving and representing native Hawaiians recognized by the Governor of Hawai'i, to plan, conduct and administer programs for drug and substance abuse

treatment and prevention needs of native Hawaiians." Will native Hawaiians be involved in the planning, eonduct and administration of these programs in cu!turally appropriate and therefore, effective, ways, or will we be merely recipient "subjects" of yet another non-Hawai-ian imposed govemment program? These are ninau that we need not only to be asking, but answering in advance to assure our involvement in initiating, planning and implementing health programs for our po'e Hawai'i. This means working early with eongressional and other leaders in drafting legislation and other proposals, overseeing their processing, and developing organizational and management capabilities to conduct and evaluate such programs. This, of course, requires discipline arfd training in the dominant ' haole world, whieh is pa'akiki for many of us 'oiwi Hawai'i. Aka, such is the meaning of 'onipa'a for survival of Ka lahui Hawai'i in modern times.