Director's Message August 16, 2024

 The Akaka clinic at 91-1051 Franklin D Roosevelt Ave, Kapolei, HI 96707, is an 88,675 square-foot multi-specialty outpatient clinic which provides primary and mental health care, x-ray, laboratory and diagnostic services, a pharmacy, Women’s Health, and specialty care. Representatives from the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) and Veteran Service Organizations (VSOs) are also co-located with us in one building. We look forward to serving you in our new clinic space.

West Oahu Vet Center Move

The physical location of the West Oahu Vet Center at 885 Kamokila Blvd Ste 105, Kapolei, HI 96707, will be closing at the end of August 2024. However, they will be available for online appointments during the month of September 2024. On October 1, 2024, they will open their new location in the new Daniel K. Akaka VA Clinic at 91-1051 Franklin D. Roosevelt Avenue Kapolei, HI 96707. We look forward to welcoming Vet Center services in the Akaka VA Clinic.

Thoughts from Chaplain Jewel Davis

Earth’s beautiful inhabitants boasts of at least two remarkably contrasting animal species: the cheetah and the elephant. The cheetah, known as the world’s fastest land mammal, can sprint 60-71 mph. With their small heads, slender bodies, extended necks, long legs, and supple spines, cheetahs run at their top speeds with quickness and agility. Their movements are a delicate dance of endurance and exhaustion. Female adult cheetahs typically live in isolation while the adult males socialize in tight groups called coalitions. Elephants, on the other hand, are Earth’s largest land mammals. They have huge bodies, large ears, and long trunks. And though graceful in their own right, elephants move considerably slower than cheetahs. Yet, these gentle giants form complex social structures. They maintain strong relational bonds that rely heavily on effective communications, which are critical for their survival.

In our era of digital communications, the speed at which information travels mirrors that of cheetahs’ swiftness. Innovations like email, text messages, social media, and instant messaging apps provide immediate accessibility and convenience, allowing for rapid communications even if distances apart. Undoubtably, these advancements have enhanced the speed at which information is communicated. They have also enabled us to stay connected and keep our friends, loved ones, and colleagues informed. However, the downside of digital communications is the decline of interpersonal interactions. Although this form of communications may be quick and easy, it lacks the nuances of nonverbal cues such as body language, tone, inflection, and presence, which are some of the very things that connect us as humans who need other humans. Like cheetahs, digital communications has its own delicate dance of emotional disconnect and misunderstandings.

Conversely, like elephants’ relational structures and bonds, interpersonal communications encompass those verbal and nonverbal cues that can convey attentiveness, full engagement, and emotional availability. Such communications also have the potential to create genuine bonds simply through direct human interactions and the building of trust.

So, in this fast-paced world of rapid information sharing, it’s important that somewhere in the midst of all the busyness of dialoging on digital platforms, that we remind ourselves to slow down enough to nurture companionship through conversations with other human beings live and in person.

I finish with this. Please keep conversations going because, in the words of Maya Angelou, “We need joy as we need air. We need love as we need water. We need each other as the Earth we share.” 

Blessings and Mahalo.

One Team, One Ohana!
Adam M. Robinson, Jr., MD, MBA, CPE 
Director, VA Pacific Islands Health Care System
VADM, MC, USN, (RET)
36th Surgeon General, USN

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