NLM Funds Native Hawaiian Outreach Project
Papa Ola Lokahi (POL), a federally-funded, non-profit community-based health organization located in Honolulu, Hawaii, has received funding to develop and implement Native Hawaiian community health education projects in Milolii, Hawaii, and Waimanalo, Oahu, which will be conducted over a twelve-month period, beginning in September, 2004. Funding for this project resulted from discussions and experiences of delegates from the National Library of Medicine, who participated in the Native American Listening Circles Project and visited Hawaii in January, 2004. The principal investigators for the project are Thomas J. Foye, MPH, Director of Planning and Development for POL, and Momi Imaikalani Lovell, Director of Health Data and Information for the organization.
The goals of the Milolii Community Health Education Project are: 1) to increase the knowledge of community members about available health information and resources by providing appropriate computer hardware and software to the community's library and training the librarian and other community members, and 2) to support community-based initiatives which have their foundation in the Hawaiian concepts of health, which involve a balance between body, mind and spirit. The target group is the residents of the community of Milolii, a predominately Native Hawaiian community on the Kona Coast, on the leeward side of the island of Hawaii. Specific components of the project include:
- After-school programs to make computers available to the community's school children for assistance with their studies and conducting research on the Web.
- Links with other Hawaiian communities to enable email and Web-based communication with other Hawaiian learning communities, for example Anuenue School, a Hawaiian immersion school in Honolulu, and Waipa, an isolated land-based community.
- Community Web sites to provide ways of sharing their accomplishments with the world.
- Learning from the Elders to preserve traditional knowledge and the passing on of that knowledge to the community's youth.
The Waimanalo Project will involve placement of three computers in the waiting areas of the Waimanalo Community Health Center (WCHC). The computers will be Web-enabled and will have a controlled list of health-related Web sites which patients, staff, and community residents can access. The sites will include MedlinePlus and a number of respected local and national health sites. Protocols will be developed to encourage health center staff to refer patients to this resource. In addition, WCHC will study the feasibility of modifying its Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system to enable a "prescription pad" element to be added. The prescription pad would enable the service provider to write a "prescription" for the patient to look up information about specific health care conditions at particular web sites, and have the "prescription" printed through the EMR. The partner organizations for this project include:
- The Waimanalo Community Health Center, a community-based non-profit corporation serving the predominately Native Hawaiian community of Waimanalo, on Oahu's windward side. The center will house the computers and train its staff in the appropriate ways of retrieving health information and referring patients to the Web-based health resources.
- Ke Ola Mamo (KOM) is the Native Hawaiian Health Care System responsible for addressing the health care needs of Native Hawaiians on the island of Oahu, and offers a wide variety of health promotion and disease prevention, health education, and monitoring programs. KOM will publicize the project and conduct community workshops in the use of the computers.
All of the involved organizations are accepted and respected in their communities, and they all share the broad interest of contributing to efforts to improve the community health of Native Hawaiians. Congratulations to all the participants!