Dean Nakayama, CNA, Palolo Chinese Home activities aide,
provides transportation to and from the Adult Day Center daily.
Palolo Chinese Home provides needed care, still growing
*Archived January 2006 article

"Palolo Chinese Home is the oldest senior citizen day center in East Honolulu," says Leigh-Wai Doo, CEO of Palolo Chinese Home. "But it is also among the newest and most innovative."

Palolo Chinese Home is America's oldest Asian-originated care home. The Home traces its roots to 1896 when 326 Chinese immigrant families raised funds to start a home for other less fortunate immigrants. At that time, in Kapalama, Oahu, it was known as The Chinese Hospital. The organization's chartered mission from that time to this remains "...to assist and care for the aged and infirmed, to maintain homes for them; to aid in the alleviation of human suffering and distress; and to carry on works of charity, mercy, and benevolence."

Today Palolo Chinese Home is Hawaii's largest Adult Resident Care Home, licensed to provide care for 50 seniors. The intermediate and skilled nursing facility (ICF/SNF, or nursing home) cares for 15 residents in a family-style setting.

In the newly renovated Day Center, participants can putter in the garden, or use the computers to improve their gaming skills or email grandchildren. Exercise is a regular part of each day. Exciting entertainment, particularly in the holiday season from Thanksgiving through Chinese New Year, is provided by volunteer groups from the ballet to the neighborhood elementary school. Licensed for 30, the Adult Day Center can immediately accommodate seniors in need of services. Transportation is available.

Palolo Chinese Home is in the midst of a thorough redevelopment of its 15-acre campus that will result in an Assisted Living/Care Home residence for 88 seniors and a nursing home (ICF/SNF) accommodating 42 residents. Further, Palolo Chinese Home will offer hospice care for five in a separate, adjacent, private residence. This facility will be operated by Hospice Hawaii, Inc.

Palolo Chinese Home strives to help seniors remain in their own homes for as long as possible through its HiNOA program. An acronym for Hawaii Neighborhood Outreach for the Aged, HiNOA helps seniors and their families understand their options and alternatives, helping to arrange assistance from bathing to chore services, from meal delivery to physician in-home visits. The Geriatric In-Home Visit program has been arranged through the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, Department of Geriatric Medicine and their Geriatric Fellows Program, under an exclusive arrangement with Palolo Chinese Home HiNOA.

Palolo Chinese Home does not charge for HiNOA services. In the past year, HiNOA outreach personnel have fielded over 2,000 phone calls. All HiNOA and Palolo Chinese Home services can be accessed with a single phone call to (808) 748-4911.

Mrs. Alice Sakurai, an overnight respite resident with Santa says, "I love it here. The entertainment is so much fun. The food is good. There's lots of fresh air and birds and it's convenient. My son, George, is retiring from being Senior Executive Vice President at Servco, but he still travels a lot. So staying here at Palolo gives both him and me a lot of freedom."

Pictured on the front page: Dean Nakayama, CNA, Palolo Chinese Home activities aide, provides transportation to and from the Adult Day Center daily.
Santa and Alice Sakurai