Bill Promotes Hawaiian Healing as Alternative Mental Health Treatment

March 8, 2019

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs is backing a bill that would promote Hawaiian healing as an alternative treatment for mental health.

Recent studies published by OHA show one in four native Hawaiian teenage girls contemplate suicide, and the number of native Hawaiian boys that attempted suicide in high school was more than double that of non-Hawaiians.

OHA says it has seen the benefits traditional forms of healing can have on those in need.

“Native Hawaiian traditions and cultural practices incorporates not just the mind, not just the body, but the spirit, the ohana, the community that I know it’s really much more holistic,” said Kealoha Fox, Ka Pou Kako’o Nui, OHA.