WAI'ANAE — The state is cutting off funding for services provided by Hale Na'au Pono, the Wai'anae Community Mental Health Center, the largest provider of community health services on the Wai'anae Coast.

The agency will lose $1.5 million to $2 million, or about 40 percent of its total budget, with the cuts beginning in the coming weeks.

Poka Laenui, executive director, said approximately 400 Wai'anae residents are served by Hale Na'au Pono. At a meeting last night attended by more than 150 people at the Wai'anae Multi-Purpose Center, Laenui warned that eliminating the programs would have devastating impact on the clients and everyone else in the community.

"The situation in Wai'anae will become explosive," said Laenui, who also goes by Hayden Burgess and is a longtime Hawaiian rights activist. "Not only will many clients slide back in their illness, but the impact on the general community cannot be fathomed. It can range from homicide to suicide, child molestation to other abuses."

Agency staff handed out petitions to supporters last night and a rally is being discussed.

State Health Director Chiyome Fukino told The Advertiser in a phone interview that the agency will no longer be getting funding for three different programs that Hale Na'au Pono has been running for different reasons — one because of a new statewide policy that affects all independent mental health services providers, a second because Laenui disagreed with the amount that would be paid, and a third because of a disagreement over auditing procedures.

Hale Na'au Pono has been operating on the coast for about 25 years. It is unique because it is the only non-state-operated community mental health center in Hawai'i, Laenui said. The agency is also the only community mental health center in the state to be nationally accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities, the only one with a clubhouse for the community, and the only one with group home housing, Laenui said.

It is also the only non-state agency that provides three levels of clinical services — assertive community treatment (ACT), community based case management (CBCM) and outpatient services, he said.

Fukino said the state is doing away with all ACT services. "We're going to put a greater emphasis on community-based case management," she said.

Fukino said Hale Na'au Pono declined to renew its outpatient services contract because "they refused to change the contract." Laenui said the requested change in qualifications was only being asked of his agency and not of the Health Department's centers.

Funding for the community-based case management program is being discontinued at the end of the month because of a disagreement over auditing procedures. "He does not like the way we monitor," Fukino said. Laenui said the Health Department suddenly changed its auditing procedures on his agency.

Margaret Maslanka, who has used the agency's services for about six years, lives in one of Hale Na'au Pono's Ma'ili adult group homes.

Maslanka would lose her case worker under the cuts. "She understands all my problems," Maslanka said.

While Laenui and the agency's clients say the situation is dire, Fukino doesn't think so. "The people need to have services, we recognize that," Fukino said. "But he's not the only provider who can provide services to the people of Wai'anae."