Newly created Hawaiʻi State Office of Wellness and Resilience outlines its mission

The newly created Office of Wellness and Resilience and its first director, Tia Hartsock, are now in place to tackle the “unprecedented public health crisis” in Hawaiʻi.

Hartsock has served nearly 25 years in the pursuit of working to improve the child-and adult-serving systems in mental health and criminal justice.

According to the state webpage about the office: Hartsock believes in new Gov. Josh Green’s philosophy and approach to understanding the root causes of trauma in order to address health and wellness and provide an opportunity for Hawaiʻi and its people to truly make strides to improve health outcomes for generations.

She is currently working on a strategic plan that will include partnering with community organizations, cultural practitioners and nonprofits and companies to find innovative solutions to the various challenges her office will face.

A few of the many goals of the Office of Wellness and Resilience:

• Identify and coordinate existing trauma-informed care and resilience efforts happening throughout state departments and community organizations.

• Identify and meet with cultural practitioners, medical health facilities, university research staff and state departments to identify current social determinants of health data.

• Establish an annual wellness and resilience summit.

• Support trauma-informed and resilience-related legislation and develop policies.

• Coordinate and develop procedures with governor’s office staff — specifically the emergency management coordinator and housing and homeless coordinators — to establish trauma-informed responses to community traumas and natural disasters.

• Participate in working groups to establish new practices to improve system outcomes in child welfare, mental health, and criminal justice systems.