Promoting social-emotional health of staff and students

HONOLULU — Kaiser Permanente has awarded Mental Health America of Hawai‘i a $50,000 grant to fund its RISE Extender Program. Through the program, MHAH staff will complete the RISE, or Resilience in School Environments, Index at 3 participating schools in Honolulu County. The RISE Index is a tool to help schools assess, prioritize, and plan key activities that promote the social-emotional health of staff and students.

Specifically, the RISE Index supports schools to achieve the following goals:

• Increase job satisfaction among teachers and staff
• Improve connectedness, engagement, and relationships within the school community
• Increase skills related to social and emotional learning
• Increase mental health supports

Five MHAH employees will be trained by Kaiser Permanente’s national partner Healthier Generation to build the capacity for MHAH to implement the RISE Index. Post-assessment, MHAH will help schools implement policy, system, and environmental changes that improve school health. The grant will also allow MHAH to share RISE resources and tools more broadly with its existing networks and assess opportunities to integrate RISE into its existing systems of support.

“Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to improving the health and well-being of staff, teachers, students, and families in our school communities,” said John Yang, MD, president and medical director for Hawaii Permanente Medical Group. “Communities thrive when teachers are supported and ‘keiki’ are healthy and ready to learn. We’re proud to foster mental, social, and emotional health in classrooms across the island.”

“Mental Health America of Hawai‘i is honored to have a role in bringing the RISE Extender Program to Hawaii. Its approach aligns perfectly with our current efforts to promote mental health and awareness in public and private schools,” said Bryan Talisayan, executive director for Mental Health America of Hawai‘i. “RISE programming has demonstrated its capacity to improve quality of life and relationships, while also increasing mental health resilience, wellness, and support by integrating students, faculty, and staff into its efforts. We are grateful for Kaiser Permanente’s support and are confident RISE efforts will play a significant role in meeting the needs of schools in Hawaii.”

About Kaiser Permanente

Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America's leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, Kaiser Permanente has a mission to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve 12.6 million members in 8 states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal Permanente Medical Group physicians, specialists, and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery, and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education, and the support of community health.