Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 2, Number 11, 1 November 1985 — Final Report Due in Early 1986 [ARTICLE]

Final Report Due in Early 1986

Needs Assessment Proiect is Result of Mandate

By Wendy Roylo Hee Planning and Development Officer The Population Survey/Needs Assessment (PS/NA) project, preliminary results of whieh were reported in last month's issue of Ka Wai Ola O OHA, is part of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs' responsibilities as mandated in Chapter 10 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes. Purposes of the project are to: • Identify physical, sociological, psychological and eeonomie needs of Hawaiians. • Establish reliable estimates of the number of Hawaiians by blood quantum (preliminary estimates were reported in the May, 1984, issue of this newspaper). • Complement the Comprehensive Services for Hawaiians Office Survey to identify gaps and barriers in the delivery of services to Hawaiians. • Assist OHA in establishing priorities and programs to direct future activities. The State Department of Health's Health Surveillance Project (HSP), whieh conducts surveys all year around, provided the sampling frame for OHA's PS/NA project. Under

the arrangement, HSP draws a stratified random sample from its statewide list of all occupied housing units for its own survey. HSP then asked all Hawaiians in its survey if they would be willing to participate in OHA's PS/NA survey. HSP then gave OHA the names, addresses and telephone numbers of those Hawaiians, who were subsequently contacted and surveyed for OHA's PS/NA project. A Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) consisting of representatives from Alu Like, Cancer Research Center of Hawaii, The Kamehameha Schools/Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate, Liliuokalani Trust, State Department of Health, State Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, State Department of Planning and Eeonomie Development and the University of Hawaii, helped design the questionnaire to eliminate duplication and to help reduce costs. The PS/NA also avoids duplication of previous needs assessments in that it is the first comprehensive survey of Hawaiians using a statewide stratified random sample. This sampling method will ensure results that are more representative of the Hawaiian community than past surveys, such as Alu Like's survey whieh used only Hawaiians who were members of Alu Like. The questionnaire used by OHA in its PS/NA survey was

designed to gather the opinions and information on the needs of all members of the Hawaiian household. The results in the preliminary report are based on the responses of about 180 Hawaiian families throughout the state, or approximately 610 people. The final report will be based on the responses of approximately 1410 people, or 400 families. This figure represents approximately one percent of the total Hawaiian population in the State of Hawaii. In comparison, the Department of Health's HSP surveys approximately 1.5 percent of the entire state p>opulation. There will be enough people surveyed on eaeh island in the PS/NA project so that in the final report estimates of certain population attributes ean be calculated for the entire population of the island, except for Lanai. There were not enough people on Lanai that were drawn in the random sample to be able to estimate characteristics of Hawaiians on that island. Since the random sample drew a lot of Hawaiian families on Oahu, there will be enough cases in the final report to be able to estimate attributes of the population Central/Leeward areas. The final report is expected to be available at the beginning of 1986.