Meeting the challenge of Hawaii's mental health crisis: new opportunities and innovations in the state mental health system for the 1990s.

Recently, Hawaii's mental health care system has been in the news because of its alleged infamy as one of the poorest systems in the United States of America today. Hawaii has not always been considered a state with a conspicuously poor commitment to mental health. The Department of Health (DOH), the oldest department of health in the United States of America, was formed in 1850 by King Kamehameha III. In fact, Kamehameha III, recognizing the importance of developing programs in mental health, was one of the earliest political leaders in history to support government-sponsored mental health services.