Over $800,000 Benefits Health and Wellness Efforts in Hawaii

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Hawai’i is a place known for its beauty, but now it may be known for more than beauty as it strives for health and wellness with Kaiser Permanente Hawai’i who has awarded nearly $800,000 dollars towards supporting nonprofits that focus on behavioral health support, preventive screenings, and healthy eating.

The commitment behind Kaiser’s support is to reduce health disparities in Hawaii, where the Latino population (10.4%) saw a 165% growth since 1990 and continues to grow consistently, according to Hawaii News Now.

Taking a stand to help all those in Hawaii, Kaiser Permanente is working in low-income communities to help improve access to healthy lunches in schools, vision and oral screenings, education, mental health and more.

Over eight non-profits have received the funds and support continued work to help provide health equity for Hawaii citizens.

Having the business and the non-profit health sectors partner to work together can benefit a community in various ways. Permanente is committed to addressing the most pressing community health issues such as obesity, mental illness, and disparities, explained Mary Ann Barnes, RN, and president of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals Hawaii region.

The nonprofits to be given funding include Helping Hands Hawaii, The Kohala Center, Project Vision Hawaii, Ala Kuola, The Hawaii Departments of Office Education Child Nutrition Programs, Hawaii Public Health Institute, Trust for Public Land and University of Hawaii Maui College.

Latino kids and families often deal with health disparities, where families often lack access to healthy foods, places for safe physical activity, access to mental health care and more. Ensuring all families have access to all health and mental wellness can help to alleviate health risks like mental health illnesses and chronic diseases like diabetes and unhealthy weights.

To learn more about why health equity is important in regards to Latino families, click here.

To read on about how the funds will be used in each non-profit in Hawaii, click here.