Led by a small group of Native Hawaiians within the University of Hawaii’s Department of Psychiatry, the NHMHRDP was established in 1990 with federal funding from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The mission: To create a cadre of mental health researchers, whose scientific investigations result in effective, culturally appropriate prevention, intervention and clinical treatment strategies, which improve the mental health status of Native Hawaiians to the highest level possible.
Four overall research goals have been, and continue to be pursued by the research and staff members of the NHMHRDP:
Overall Research Goals:
1. Determine the rates of mental disorders among Native Hawaiians within the general population of Hawaii.
2. Establish a comprehensive database from which researchers can identify and study the effects of psychological, social and cultural factors which underpin the genesis and alleviation of mental illness among Native Hawaiians.
3. Determine the patterns of help seeking behaviors by Native Hawaiians to use traditional western and alternative native healing practices and the effects of these healing practices on mental illness.
4. Establish a Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Minority Mental Health Research Center to support a cadre of experts at UH to study the causes, prevention, and treatment of mental illness among Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.
Significance
Hawaii’s indigenious people, called Native Hawaiians or Kanaka maoli, living in 21st century Hawaii, still bear the effects of a 222 year history of devastating loss––a 90 percent death rate from diseases their immune systems had little defense toward, government sactioned denigration and shunning of their native culture, loss of most of their native lands through a Western system of land owernership which they neither understood nor endorsed, and an illegal overthrow and imprisonment of their last reigning sovereign, Queen Lili‘uokalani.
The mental health effects from this tragic history of loss are profound. The E Ola Mau Health Needs Study (1985) was the first study that documented the scope of mental health needs among Native Hawaiians. Based on clinical populations, the study showed that among Hawaii’s major ethnic groups, Kanaka Maoli had higher rates of alcohol and substance abuse, depression, suicide, physical abuse and neglect, incarceration, and disruptive disorders. Further, the E Ola Mau study reported that Native Hawaiians were under-represented in mental health professions and there were no senior researchers of Native Hawaiian ancestry within the University of Hawaii (UH) system.
Major recommendations of the report included increasing the numbers of Native Hawaiians in mental health professions, training Native Hawaiian mental health researchers, conducting research on mental disorders among Native Hawaiians, and designing prevention and intervention strategies which addressed the unique cultural needs of Native Hawaiians.
In 1988-89, Dr. Naleen Andrade designed a Strategic Plan to achieve the overall research goals outlined above with assistance from three sources: a) senior mentors Dr. John McDermott, Jr., Professor and Psychiatry Department Chair, and Dr. Ronald Johnson, Professor and Psychology Department Chair-emeritus; b) consultation from Dr. Spero Manson, Director of the National Center for American Indian and Alaskan Native Mental Health Research, and Dr. James Shore, Professor and Chair of the University of Colorado, Health Sciences Center; and c) technical assistance and consultation from Dr. Delores Parron, Deputy Director of Special Populations at NIMH. The Plan was developed into the grant proposal which established the NHMHRDP.
In 1990, Dr. Andrade, became the Principal Investigator and Director of the NHMHRDP, and estimated that it would take ten years to recruit the needed technical experts (e.g., statisticians, behavioral researchers), build a team of researchers, and establish a competitive research track record.
A Model to Achieve Cultural Diversity in Academia
It is axiomatic that to create a cadre of Native Hawaiian mental health researchers, a critical mass of scholars of Native Hawaiian ancestry are required. The Plan proposed that the NHMHRDP recruit and train promising Native Hawaiians from John A. Burns School Of Medicine, the UH Psychiatry Residency Training Program, as well as the School of Social Work, School of Public Health, and the UH Department of Psychology, in quantitative analysis, research design, field studies, research manuscript publication, and grant proposal writing. In addition to research expertise, the Plan designed a scholarly development track, which would develop skills needed to succeed in academia, e.g., teaching, curricula development, clinical adminstration, etc. A main objective was to produce individuals with the ability to become scholars and national leaders in American Psychiatry.
To complement the Native Hawaiian researchers, a cadre of non-Hawaiian researchers with critically needed technical expertise, as well as graduate students with developing technical skills and knowledge in epidemiology, statistics, quantitative analysis, etc., were also needed to complete the NHMHRDP research team. Following a similar process of selection, outlined in the previous paragraphs, promising men and women in the School of Social Work, School of Public Health, Department of Psychology, and Department of Sociology were recruited and trained.
Since 1990, the NHMHRDP has provided research training opportunities to 7 undergraduates, 5 graduate students (in Psychology, Social Work, and Sociology), 8 psychiatry residents, who had been identified and recruited when they were medical students, and 1 junior faculty. Of these 21 individuals, 3 are Asian, 1 is Samoan, and 17 (81%) are Native Hawaiian. Of the 17 Hawaiians trained, 8 (47%) became researchers within the NHMHRDP, and 5 (29%) are psychiatry faculty and current research team members. Among these 5 current researchers, the objective to produce scholars and national leaders in American Psychiatry has been met in large part; the specific outcomes are presented in the National awards and recognition section.
Activities and Outcomes Since 1990
The following pages of our website will provide readers with information on the specific studies, initiatives, outcomes, and achievements that the members of the NHMHRDP have been involved with since the onset of our program. Contact phone numbers and email addresses have been provided for readers wishing to receive more information.
Over the past ten years, members of the NHMHRDP–both Native Hawaiian and
non-Hawaiian–have developed an espirit de corps built upon a unified vision of improving the mental health status of Native Hawaiians in their homeland, a deep commitment to conducting rigorous scientific research, and trust in each other’s integrity, as individuals and as a team, to enhance the cross-cultural knowledge base of Hawai‘i’s indigenous people.