WAILUKU, Maui — Maui teens experiencing a psychiatric crisis can get help close to home with the reopening of the Molokini II Adolescent Behavioral Health Unit at Maui Memorial Medical Center.

The unit is the only one of its kind on the Neighbor Islands. It provides around-the-clock, short-term care for adolescents ages 13 to 17 suffering from acute psychiatric episodes, with the goal of stabilizing their conditions to the point they can return home or go to a treatment facility in the community.

There are two similar facilities on O'ahu — Kahi Mohala and at the Queen's Medical Center. Before the Maui unit resumed services last month, Neighbor Island patients had to wait in hospital emergency rooms until air transportation and an available bed could be arranged on O'ahu.

The prospect of seeing their children sent off island for treatment made some Maui parents reluctant to seek help, hospital officials said. It was a bad arrangement all around, not only because of travel costs and family separation, but because of continuity-of-care issues.

"It was terribly hard on parents and hard on the community," said Colleen Wallace of Mental Health America in Maui County, an advocacy group. "Kids needed a program that would provide them with a safe place to be. It's so wonderful that the hospital has taken the lead in developing a model that will be sustainable."

Molokini II suffered its own crisis after the island lost the services of several child psychiatrists. When one of the two remaining doctors left for the Mainland, the lone psychiatrist, Dr. Harold McGuffey, decided to take a leave of absence because of on-call hours that were affecting his private practice and his personal life.

The unit closed in June 2004 and remained shut for three years while the hospital struggled to recruit doctors. Maui Memorial officials decided to tackle the staffing problem by restructuring the unit's operations, said Susan Carroll, clinical director for behavioral health.

What they came up with is a hospital-based team of three medical professionals who can focus on treating patients without the distraction of a private practice.

McGuffey returned two years ago in the new position of medical director of behavioral health services, overseeing treatment of both adults and adolescents, and a second psychiatrist, Dr. LiLi Kelly, a former chief resident at Queen's, was hired for Molokini II along with Suzanna Dee, an advanced practice registered nurse who provided psychiatric care for remote communities in Alaska before coming to Maui.

Dee is the first advanced practice registered nurse to be employed by Maui Memorial and one of only two psychiatric nurse practitioners on Maui who can prescribe drugs.

Molokini II can accommodate seven youths and may be able to accommodate overflow patients from the Honolulu facilities, officials said.

Maui Memorial Chief Executive Officer Wesley Lo said the reopening will provide "dramatic changes in the community" because of improved mental health services for youths and closer collaboration with other agencies providing treatment.

He said Molokini II operations are expected to break even or show a small financial loss, but the facility will prove its worth by providing cost-efficient programs that may keep some patients from repeated admission to the unit.

Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com.