Health

Building Mental Health

Wednesday, March 1st, 2023

By Sage Yamashita, Intern Reporter

Many people may not realize they must care for their mental health. Aaron Mitchell, a mental health counselor, wants to ensure Molokai’s community has his services to care for theirs. 

“Many don’t get help until their circumstances become dire,” said Mitchell. “Since the beginning of time, youth have been going to their elders with their problems. They didn’t wait. Why do we wait today?”

Mitchell is the owner of Molokai Mental Health, where psychological tools that span across cultures are taught. A good psychologist like this Mitchell understands the importance of cultural competence in therapy and emphasizes the need for practitioners to adapt their approaches to meet the diverse needs of their clients.…

$1.6M for Health Center Dental Expansion

Wednesday, January 11th, 2023

By Catherine Cluett Pactol | Editor

Molokai Community Health Center’s dental services will be expanding after receiving $1,664,000 in Community Project Funding as part of a recently passed $1.7 trillion federal spending bill.

The funds will be used to renovate MCHC’s dental clinic to add three new dental operatories, office partitions Melbourne for flexible dental/hygiene/office spaces, an enlarged patient waiting area, state of the art dental equipment and a multi-tiered air sanitization system, according to MCHC. The new clinic space will double patient access to dental services and accommodate three full-time dental/hygiene providers to address the overwhelming increase in demand for oral hygiene and dentistry services island wide, the center stated so you can contact professionals like dentist Willmar and others.…

Naʻau Healing Center Opens in Kaunakakai

Wednesday, December 7th, 2022

By Jack Kiyonaga, Community Reporter 

Residents have a new space to address their mental health needs thanks to Molokai’s own Keshia Adolpho. 

Right off the main road in Kaunakakai behind All Things Molokai, the Na’au Healing Center is open and ready for business. Adolpho’s new office is comfortable and inviting, adorned with board games, new furniture and a TV playing Christmas music. 

Born on Oahu and raised in Ho’olehua, Adolpho graduated with her master’s in social work in 2014 but wasn’t sure yet what she wanted to do with it. It was only in coming back home to Molokai that the idea of becoming a licensed clinical social worker took shape.  …