Five Mountains Hawaii

Mauna Loa
Photo © Peter French

Five Mountains Hawaii is working to build a healthy island community by encouraging healthy living and sustainability that integrates mind, body, spirit, nature and community. In order to attain optimum health, as individuals or as a community, people must have access to the knowledge, tools and opportunities that lead to an improved quality of life.

Tutu’s House, in Waimea is a safe place for people of all ages to learn, share and explore health and healing of the mind, body and spirit. It provides health related resources, a library, information, tools, staff and programs on just about any health care topic you can name, free of charge. Tutu’s House is also the home of the HealthMaps program. HealthMaps is a computer-oriented service that teaches people how to use the internet to find health information on their own. It also helps people to create a personalized health map to follow in caring for themselves and improving their health status.

Please visit the site at www.tutushouse.org.

HSAs offer great benefits to consumers. They provide more control over an individual's healthcare dollars. And HSAs decrease consumer costs by spending pre-tax dollars for healthcare. They also give the consumer significant freedom of choice over the type of healthcare service and which provider to use. HSAs result in reduced taxes and decreased healthcare costs. And very importantly, MSAs provide an investment vehicle for retirement income. The consumer keeps more of their healthcare dollars, rather than an insurance company.

Learn more about Health Savings Accounts

This online directory offers a comprehensive variety of healthcare, wellness, healing and fitness resources across Hawaii Island. In addition to serving as a significant resource to community members as they seek healthier lifestyles, it also encourages economic development in the field of health and wellness. This guide is currently housed online.

Please visit the site at www.kekukui.net.

Five Mountains Hawaii is currently working to bring together a wide range of health professionals in North Hawaii who have expressed interest in collaborating to support lifestyle improvement efforts in the community. Interested partners include the Hamakua Health Center, Hawaii Heart Brain Center, Friends of the Future, Hui Malama Ola Na ‘Oiwi, Queen Liliuokalani Children’s Center, North Hawaii Outcomes Project, alumni of the FMH LiveWell project and many more.

The group plans to conduct a public awareness campaign in the Northwest Hawaii region. The focus will be to educate, inform and actively engage the community about the benefits of a healthy diet and increased physical activity.

This initial work will lay the groundwork for a long-term effort to raise awareness, engage a broad spectrum of individuals, organizations, agencies and businesses, to affect positive changes in the social environment related to the important issue of obesity and weight-related health conditions. The focus will be to educate, inform and actively engage as many community elements as possible about the benefits of healthy eating and lifestyle choices.