LIHU‘E — Malia Tokioka’s mission, she said, is to help people get free of and stay away from drugs and alcohol. After working as a counselor for the drug- and alcohol-treatment program Hina Mauka for seven years, she decided to
LIHU‘E — Malia Tokioka’s mission, she said, is to help people get free of and stay away from drugs and alcohol.
After working as a counselor for the drug- and alcohol-treatment program Hina Mauka for seven years, she decided to start her own, faith-based, substance-abuse treatment program on Kaua‘i.
Of the 35 clients in the Lihu‘e-based program, 18 are Native Hawaiians, said Tokioka, executive director of Hope, Help & Healing Kaua‘i.
“My hope is to raise up people in our program,” Tokioka told trustees of the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs at the board’s July meeting at the Queen Lili‘uokalani Children’s Center in Lihu‘e earlier this month.
There are eight “competent” staff members, said Tokioka, thanking trustees for the one-time OHA grant of nearly $100,000 that her program received. With her at the meeting was Dera Caberto, office manager and senior counselor.
The program has two sober houses, one for males and one for females, and offers counseling, treatment, case management and other services.
O‘ahu OHA Trustee Walter Meheula Heen asked Tokioka how she measures success of the program.
Tokioka said there is a tracking system, a six-month follow-up program, and checks to make sure participants are community contributors and remain clean and sober.
Using a combination of intervention and prevention, as well as structured classes and counseling on a variety of training matters, the programs work “to empower and assist men and women in their desire to change their lives, to become productive citizens, and live according to the laws of God and man,” according to the program mission statement.
For those not in the transitional sober-living homes, where they typically stay six to 12 months, off-site classes are offered in topics such as structure and systems, role-modeling, peer-group exercises, anger management, denial, relationships, domestic violence, grief and loss, relapse prevention, spiritual recovery in Jesus, and more, according to the group’s brochure.
Clients are taught responsibility, duties, authority, measurement and accountability, and adhere to a zero-tolerance drug and alcohol policy backed by random drug testing.
Tokioka said she supports Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr.’s desire to site before the year is over an adolescent, residential drug-abuse treatment center, which she said is “very important.”
“I have worked with teenagers for over 10 years. Seven of the years were in adolescent outpatient treatment in the high school (Kapa‘a High),” she said in an e-mail.
“I have seen where the teen is in need of residential treatment but doesn’t want to leave Kaua‘i to do so. The teens that I worked with were very motivated to receive treatment, but doing it so far away from home with no support is very hard for teens,” Tokioka said.
She said she got into the faith-based treatment business as a calling.
“I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior in 1995, and have had a calling on my life to work in this field. I know that it is my destiny and that this is what I was made to do,” she said.
“I love this population and have a passion to help people in recovery. I have dedicated my life to working in substance abuse and will support our mayor in his efforts to having an adolescent treatment program,” she said.
The Hope, Help & Healing Kaua‘i program Web site is hhhk.org.
• Paul C. Curtis, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@kauaipubco.com
