Maui mental care unit closing
By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau
WAILUKU, Maui — A shortage of staff child psychiatrists has prompted Maui Memorial Medical Center to temporarily close its adolescent mental health ward effective June 1.
But parents and mental-health advocates yesterday urged the community to rally around the Molokini II unit for fear that the closure will be made permanent.
"It was a big project to get it opened," said Colleen Wallace of the Mental Health Association of Maui. "Now, we're all afraid of losing it, fearing it will never come back."
Hospital officials said they are trying to recruit new doctors and are working to find other solutions to make the suspension of service as short as possible.
Nick Hughey, the hospital's manager of clinical resources, said officials will be meeting today with health providers and child psychiatrists to see if they can help out until a permanent solution can be found.
In addition, he said the hospital will be creating a position of medical director for psychiatric services overseeing both the adult and adolescent mental-health wards.
Maui Memorial is the only Neighbor Island hospital providing psychiatric care for youths. It serves Maui and Hawai'i counties. During 2002 and 2003, Molokini II accepted 244 admissions.
The adult facility is in no danger of being shut down.
Hospital officials said the suspension of youth psychiatric services is necessary because of the unexpected departure of the unit's two staff psychiatrists, one who is moving to the Mainland and the other who declined the burden of being on call virtually all the time in the wake of his colleague's departure.
Without the Molokini II unit, youngsters in need of mental-health hospitalization must be sent to facilities on O'ahu.
Yesterday, parents and others said the closure represents a hardship for children and their families.
Judy Acosta, a single parent from Kihei, said the facility and its doctors have helped her 18-year-old son deal with his panic attacks over the last five months.
"I'm so glad it's here. It's really helped," she said.
A hotel housekeeper without the means to fly to Honolulu, Acosta said she didn't know what she would do without the Maui facility.
"I'm just hoping they can work it out," she said.
Pam Tumpap said her 18-year-old son has suffered anger-management troubles since age 12 and has threatened to take his own life three or four times.
"If it were not for the the Molokini unit, I would question whether my son would even be here today," she said.
Tumpap said her family was able to visit the boy every night and help with counseling during his hospital stays. But if he had been moved to O'ahu, the burden of support would have come at major expense, Tumpap said.
"As a community, we need this safety net," she said.
Debbie Hill said her son suffers from a mental disorder that puts him at risk of becoming suicidal.
"He needs this place," she said. "Nobody wants to send their kids off-island. He would fall apart."
Maui child psychiatrist Dr. Harold McGuffey said he decided to take a leave of absence from the hospital staff because on-call work hours were bad enough when there were only two staff physicians. With colleague Dr. Jason Andrus leaving for the Mainland, his obligation to the hospital would have only worsened, causing adverse effects not only for his personal life but also for his private practice on Maui and the Big Island, he said.
McGuffey said the unit needs four or five staff physicians. He added that he would be interested in returning to the staff if more physicians were found to share the workload.
Reach Timothy Hurley at thurley@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 244-4880.
