State breaks ground on new psychiatric facility in Kaneohe

The state broke ground Wednesday on a new 144-bed psychiatric facility at the Hawaii State Hospital in Kaneohe.

The $140 million, four-story, 170,000-square-foot building will be a “modern therapeutic environment” for the consistently overcrowded hospital and include patient care units, a rehabilitation area, secured offices as well as a gym, a basketball court and a dining room that opens onto an indoor/outdoor courtyard.

State officials say it will be a safer, friendlier environment.

The new complex, mauka of the existing hospital, is replacing the 70-year-old Goddard Building that was demolished in 2016, and will increase the facility’s total capacity to 252 patients from 202.

New safety measures also will be installed with one way in and out at the front of the building and a 16-foot fence surrounding the rear of the building, scheduled to open in January 2021 on 6.92 acres of land mauka of Windward Community College.