Serving the People of Hawaii Since 1960        

The first licensed Special Treatment Facility in the State of Hawaii, today, the Sand Island Treatment Center is also one of the largest, most comprehensive and effective drug treatment centers in the Pacific Region.

For 45 years, the operation of The Kline - Welsh Behavioral Health Foundation has been an example of that which is possible when cooperation exists between Federal, State, City and County government and the private sector.   The People of Hawaii have benefited from this cooperation through the availability of low cost - truly responsive rehabilitation services.                                    

In our 53 bed Residential component, and our 70 patient Day Treatment and Supportive Living Sections, we provide highly individualized treatment services that genuinely address the specific treatment needs of each patient. 

While it is true that "formulaic" treatment tends to relieve an agency of the burden of staffing with individuals possessing better than mediocre clinical insight and counseling skills, this approach, most usually, results in significant client issues being overlooked or devalued and under-treated, as the "numbers get punched." 

It is not unfair, or inaccurate, to say that this approach is directly responsible for many of the "normal" relapses being generated within the treatment field today. Unfortunately, it is during these "normal" relapses that the the bulk of the loss, injury and death, associated with drug addiction, is being inflicted upon innocent members of the general population.

We find that it is critically important to actually "connect" with the human being, as opposed to simply "presenting the material."  We could "cycle" people through the program more quickly but the Board of Directors decided, long ago, that genuine and lasting recovery for each patient, rather than maximizing revenues, through the rapid, high volume "processing" of high reimbursable patients, should be our goal.

Family members are invited to have meals with their loved ones and be involved in treatment services on 3 occasions per week.   These services include our Friday night Co-dependency Education classes, our Wednesday night Family Discussion groups and an Al-Anon meeting, on the Treatment Center grounds, on Sunday mornings.  These services are provided at no cost to participating family members.

Over the years, all renovations, reconstruction and repairs to the Treatment Center have been funded by the Foundation.   We have refrained from going to the Taxpayers of Hawaii, or the Legislature, to ask for funding for a function which, rightly, should  be the responsibility of the operating agency.

In our view, one of the chief reasons for our stability and success over the years has been a very strong commitment, on the part of the Board and management, to retain effective, trained staff.   The average length of service, at the Treatment Center, for our direct Counseling staff, is over 10 years.   Many of our Senior Counseling staff have served with the agency in excess of 15 years.

Our Counseling Staff is also the most diverse in the State, with all of the major ethnic groups in Hawaii, represented.  Since we began admitting women for treatment in 1993, a focused effort has resulted in parity in the hiring and advancement of female clinical staff. 

Our staff functions as a true meritocracy.  Demonstrated ability in providing sound clinical direction and the effective application of motivational strategies are key factors considered when staff members are advanced within the overall system.  It really doesn't matter how good a counselor looks on paper if the patient doesn't benefit from interaction with that staff member.

All the great ideas in the World amount to nothing without skilled and dedicated workers to make those ideas come to life on a daily basis.  The old fashioned work ethic, and the sense of a personal moral obligation to truly serve this population, shown to us by our Founders, continues with today's Sand Island staff.

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Send mail to black3rd@hawaii.rr.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: March 24th, 2009