Developmental Disabilities

Hawaii Contacts

State Agency Responsible for Providing Services to the Developmentally Disabled

The Case Management and Information Services Branch, Developmental Disabilities Division, Hawaii Department of Health, assists people with developmental disabilities and/or mental retardation, and their families or guardians. The mission statement reads: Case management and information services branch is dedicated to the support of persons with mental retardation and developmental disabilities to choose and achieve their individual goals."

State Agency Responsible for Overseeing Employment Opportunities for the Developmentally Disabled

The Vocational Rehabilitation and Services for the Blind Division provides help with employment for persons with disabilities. Vocational Rehabilitation is a State-Federal partnership program that provides services to help people with physical or mental impairments to attain successful employment outcomes. Services provided may include the following: assessment, vocational rehabilitation counseling and guidance, rehabilitation technology services, supported employment services, and job placement and follow-up.

Sheltered Employment

The Hawaii Department of Human Services, the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, and the Department of Health are program funding partners of Goodwill Industries of Hawaii, a private non-profit corporation that provides job training and employment service programs for people with various barriers to employment, including those with developmental disabilities. Goodwill individualizes training by helping to develop a plan to achieve an individual's goals: These goals may include: determining work ability; training in a specific career field, helping identify and change attitudes or behaviors to increase opportunities, providing an opportunity to intern or practice work skills prior to job placement, helping increase physical stamina for work, helping to improve job seeking skills in preparation for employment.

Competitive Employment

The Vocational Rehabilitation and Services for the Blind Division offers services to meet individual needs, including those provided by other agencies to help you get a job. These services may include supported employment services and job placement and follow-up. Supported employment is a service that is integrated into the existing vocational rehabilitation delivery system. Supported employment services expand employment options for participants with the most significant disabilities, many of whom are able to engage in competitive work with the provision of intensive training, supervision and other services.

Health and Safety

The Consultation and Training Branch of HIOSH provides free on-site consultation to employers and information and training on occupational safety and health to employers and employee groups. Requests for assistance from the Consultation and Training Branch are kept confidential from the Occupational Safety and Occupational Health branches.

Hawaii is one of several states that administer their own occupational safety and health programs according to the provisions of the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. The Hawaii Occupational Safety and Health Law was enacted in 1973 to assure safe and healthful working conditions for Hawaii's workers. The Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations administers the Hawaii OSH Law through its Hawaii Occupational Safety and Health Division (HIOSH) and has the authority to enforce all laws and standards concerning safety and health at the worksite. HIOSH covers nearly all workers in the state, including those employed by state and county governments. Excluded from state coverage are federal employees, workers in the maritime industry, domestic workers, and family farms.

Reporting Abuse and Neglect

Adult Protective Services provides crisis intervention, without regard to income, including investigation and emergency services to dependent adults who are reported to be abused, neglected or financially exploited by others or seriously endangered due to self-neglect. Dependent adult abuse and neglect can be reported by calling Monday through Friday between 7:45 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.: Call (Area Code 808): Oahu: 832-5115; Kauai: 241-3432; Maui, Molokai, and Lanai: 243-5151 (After hours, call 243-5150); Hilo, Hamakua, and Puna: 933-8820; and Kau, Kona, Kohala, and Kamuela: 327-6280. 9ll should be called in an emergency and after hours.

Protection and Advocacy

The Hawaii Disability Rights Center is the State of Hawaii's designated Protection and Advocacy System for people with disabilities. Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities (PADD) is established to protect the legal and human rights of individuals with developmental disabilities, and has authority to "pursue legal, administrative, and other appropriate remedies or approaches to ensure the protection of, and advocacy for, the rights of such individuals in the State who are or who may be eligible for treatment, services, or habitation, or who are being considered for a change in living arrangements, with particular attention to members of ethnic and racial minority groups; provide information on and referral to programs and services addressing the needs of individuals with developmental disabilities; investigate incidents of abuse and neglect of individuals with developmental disabilities if the incidents are reported to the system or if there is probably cause to believe that the incidents occurred;..."