The Coalition was formed in 1999, as a result of the Governor's Blue Ribbon Panel on Living and Dying with Dignity (1998). The panel's recommendations included:

• Increase public & professional awareness
• Increase access to spiritual/cultural resources
• Improve pain management efforts
• Increase hospice utilization
• Increase completion and use of advance directives

Kōkua Mau Advisory Group:

. The Queen's Medical Center

. Kokua Kalihi Valley (community health center)

. HMSA

. State of Hawai‘i Executive Office on Aging

. Kaiser Permanente Hawaii

. UH Center on Aging

. Hawaii Pacific Health

. UH John A. Burns School of Medicine

. Hawaiian Islands Hospice Organization

. Community volunteers

National Awards:

Harvard University Kennedy School
2002 Innovations in American Government Award, Finalist

Rallying Points
(A Robert Wood Johnson Foundation end-of-life care initiative)
2004 "National Coalition of the Year"
Community Coalition Award of Excellence, Statewide Coalition

About this Website:

Just as surely as life has a beginning, it also has an end. The inevitable journey at the end of our lives, however brief or extended it may be, will deeply affect us and those close to us. Yet few of us actually talk at length about that journey and what it may mean.

This website is designed for and dedicated to Hawaii's ohana. Every day, our friends and our neighbors are confronted with having to make choices about end-of-life care for their loved ones, or for themselves.

The first step in making choices about end-of-life care is to begin a caring conversation. The links below will take you to various pages that can better prepare Hawaii families to begin difficult, but necessary conversations about end-of-life issues with their loved ones.

Kōkua Mau lead partners are The Queen's Medical Center, HMSA, Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, Hawaii Pacific Health, Hawai‘i Executive Office on Aging, Hawaiian Islands Hospice Organization, and the University of Hawai‘i's John A. Burns School of Medicine and Center on Aging. The work each partner contributes fulfills the Kōkua Mau Mission Statement, which is "To ensure that Hawaii's people may die in the the place of their choice, free of pain and suffering, and treated according to their beliefs and values."

To achieve this vision, the partners continue to:

• Improve policy related to end-of-life care issues (e.g., advance directives and hospice reimbursement).
• Provide a statewide Speakers Bureau & public awareness campaign.
• Educate physicians, nurses & students about pain management and end-of-life care.
• Work with faith communities to meet the community's spiritual needs.
• Provide training and resources to Hawai‘i's aging network so that they can integrate end of life issues into the care that they provide to older adults.
• Provide resources to all Hawai‘i's citizens, including older adults and their families, so they can plan ahead and avoid crises at the end of life.

The work of Kōkua Mau and its partners has been made possible by generous donations from the following trusts and foundations:

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Archstone Foundation, Atherton Family Foundation, Cooke Foundation, Ltd., Frear Eleemosynary Trust, G.N. Wilcox Trust, HMSA (Hawaii Medical Services Association) Foundation, Hawaii Community Foundation, McInerny Foundation, SOROS (Project on Death in America) Foundation, S.W. Wilcox Trust.