Over the past 50 years, Department leaders, chairs, faculty, and residents have augmented modest University resources with their individual and collective innovations and talents, to build nationally recognized programs in education and training, clinical care, and research. Through these programs the Department strives to eliminate health disparities among Indigenous Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific Island nations populations, as well as address the public mental health needs of severely mentally ill, rural and remote populations within our Pacific Island home. We continue to build a framework of rigorous multidisciplinary investigation that will continue to sharpen our clinical and training programs. Hawaiʻi creates a unique training and research opportunity for those interested in human behavior, psychopathology and psychiatric practice in Hawaiʻi’s communities.
The self-less giving without the expectation of reciprocity…the ability for us to empathize with others and treat our colleagues and those we serve with the sensitivity and respect that brings out their (and our) best qualities and strengths to define, then complete our tasks with excellence.
The ability for us to be Servant-Leaders who strive to establish a set of working relationships that build a team or an ‘ohana…These relationships seek to achieve balance or harmony within ourselves and with others…It is balancing the needs of the individual with the needs of those we serve.
A family or team bonded by a continuous thread of history, culture and/or aims…While the environment can alter the shape and operations of our Department, as an ‘Ohana, these changes will not sever the fundamental historical and strategic threads that define who we are and how we will respond in an unknown future. Our ‘Ohana faces adversity together, coalescing the sum of our diverse talents to create something new – to become something more than when we began. And, we savor and celebrate (without gloating or becoming complacent) our achievements.
Excellence in all we do as individuals and as members of our ‘ohana.
The University of Hawaiʻi, John A. Burns School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry is Hawaii’s leading academic unit in mental health services, education/training, and research.
