Telehealth psychiatry, across all of Hawaiʻi

OhanaPsych provides telehealth psychiatry to people throughout Hawaiʻi, bringing expert mental-health care to wherever you are. A telehealth visit is simply an appointment with your psychiatric provider held over secure video instead of in person — so you can be seen from home, from work, or from anywhere on your island. Psychiatry is especially well suited to this format, because most of a visit is a careful conversation and thoughtful medication management, both of which translate naturally to video. Roughly 85% of our care is delivered this way, which is how we are able to see clients quickly across the state, including rural and neighbor-island communities that have few or no local psychiatrists.

Telehealth makes psychiatric care accessible

For many people in Hawaiʻi, the hardest part of getting mental-health care is simply reaching a provider. Telehealth removes the most common barriers — long drives, inter-island travel, time away from work, childcare, and transportation. It also protects privacy and dignity: there is no waiting room, and you can be seen from a place where you feel safe. We start from lōkahi — balance across the connected parts of your life — and we treat telehealth as a way to extend genuine care and kōkua (help) to every island, not as a lesser substitute for being seen.

Is telehealth as good as being seen in person?

For psychiatric care, the evidence is reassuring. Research on telemental health finds it effective for diagnosis, assessment, and treatment across children, adults, and older adults, and broadly comparable to in-person care. Evaluation, therapy, and ongoing medication management all work well by secure video. If a situation ever calls for an in-person visit, we will tell you and arrange it.

Getting the most from your telehealth visit

A telehealth appointment is a real medical visit — please treat it the way you would treat sitting in our office. The more you can do to create a private, quiet, and secure space, the more we are able to help you.

A few simple things make a real difference:

• Find a private space. Please join from somewhere you can speak freely and no one can overhear you — ideally your home, behind a closed door. A confidential conversation is part of good care, and a public spot such as a parking lot, a store, a waiting room, or a workplace break room makes that hard.
• Settle in as you would for any appointment. Have your medication list nearby, set aside distractions, and give yourself the full time. This is your visit, and you have our full attention — we ask for yours in return.
• Protect your privacy and ours. We use secure, HIPAA-compliant video for every visit. We ask you to do your part on your end as well: a private setting, a personal device when possible, and a connection you trust rather than open public Wi-Fi.

And one gentle, slightly cheeky request: a telehealth visit is still a real doctor’s appointment, so please don’t join us from the bathroom, from bed, or fresh out of the shower wrapped in a towel. Get dressed the way you would to come see us, find a comfortable chair, and we will take good care of you from there.

Please never join a telehealth visit while driving. In Hawaiʻi it is against the law to hold or use a handheld mobile device while operating a vehicle — that includes a video or phone appointment — and a first offense carries a $300 fine, higher in a school or construction zone (Haw. Rev. Stat. § 291C-137). More importantly, it is not safe for you or for anyone else on the road, and a clinical visit deserves more attention than you can give it from behind the wheel.

We know connectivity is not the same on every island or in every neighborhood, and we understand. If your only option is to take the appointment from your car, please pull over and park somewhere safe first — a spot with a stable signal — before we begin. We would far rather wait a few minutes for you to get parked and settled than have you on the road. And whenever you can, being at home is better than being out in the community for a visit like this.

Your first visit, and why live video matters

Hawaiʻi law treats a live, two-way video visit as the foundation of telehealth care. Under the state’s telehealth statute, a true telehealth visit uses real-time video — a plain telephone call by itself does not count as a telehealth visit (Haw. Rev. Stat. § 453-1.3). That is why your first visit with us needs working internet and a working camera. A live video connection is how we establish a provider–patient relationship and complete a proper evaluation — the same careful look we would give you sitting in our office.

Hawaiʻi does allow audio-only (telephone) visits in some situations — but not on their own, and not indefinitely. State law lets us care for you by phone only when you have had a live video visit, or an in-person visit, within the six months before your first audio-only visit, and within the twelve months before any later audio-only visit (Haw. Rev. Stat. § 453-1.3). In plain terms: a phone visit is a convenience the law allows around regular video care, not a replacement for it — so we will need to see you on live video from time to time to keep caring for you by phone.

This is not red tape for its own sake. Seeing and hearing you lets us catch things a phone call alone can miss, and it keeps your care both safe and within the law.

Telehealth and controlled medications

Most psychiatric medications — including the SSRIs and SNRIs used for depression and anxiety — are not controlled substances and can be prescribed and managed entirely by telehealth. Some medications, such as stimulants for ADHD and benzodiazepines, are controlled substances, and prescribing them remotely is governed by the federal Ryan Haight Act and DEA telemedicine rules. As of this writing, the DEA and HHS have extended the telemedicine prescribing flexibilities through December 31, 2026; depending on your situation, an in-person visit may still be needed at some point. We follow these rules carefully and prescribe controlled medications only within an established, ongoing provider relationship.

Insurance and getting started

We accept Hawaiʻi QUEST / Med-QUEST (Medicaid), Medicare, and most commercial insurance plans. If you are not sure whether your plan is accepted, our team will verify your coverage before your first visit so there are no surprises. New patients are welcome — call (808) 777-9460 or start your request online. Language assistance is available.

Care on every island — not just where our offices are

Hawaiʻi has a documented shortage of psychiatric prescribers, and it falls hardest on the neighbor islands, where residents have long been asked to fly to Oʻahu for care that should be reachable from home. Telehealth closes that gap. Here is how we serve each island.

Hawaiʻi Island (Big Island). Our Hilo office anchors care on the east side, and telehealth carries it across an island too large to cross for a single appointment — from Hilo and Keaʻau to Kailua-Kona and the Kona coast, up to Waimea and Honokaʻa, and out to Pāhoa, Volcano, and Waikoloa. On an island where some mental-health services sit well below need, a video visit removes a two-hour drive from the equation.

Oʻahu. Our Honolulu office serves urban Honolulu and the surrounding communities — Kailua, Kāneʻohe, Pearl City, Waipahu, Kapolei, ʻEwa Beach, Mililani, Wahiawā, and the Waiʻanae Coast. Even on the island with the most providers in the state, demand outpaces supply and waitlists are real; telehealth lets us see Oʻahu patients without a commute across town.

Maui. Maui residents in Kahului, Wailuku, Kīhei, Makawao, and Pāʻia have too often been told the next opening is weeks out or requires a flight. We see Maui patients by telehealth, so care does not depend on interisland travel.

Kauaʻi. From Līhuʻe and Kapaʻa to Kōloa, Waimea, Princeville, and Hanalei, Kauaʻi’s provider shortage is among the most severe in the state. Telehealth gives the Garden Isle direct access to a psychiatric provider without leaving the island.

Molokaʻi and Lānaʻi. Small, close-knit communities like Kaunakakai and Lānaʻi City often have no resident psychiatric prescriber at all. Telehealth is not a convenience here — it is frequently the only realistic way to start and stay in care.

And beyond. Wherever you live in Hawaiʻi — including the families of Niʻihau — if you have an internet connection, you can reach us.

New patients welcome — we work to see you quickly, not in months

The hardest part of mental-health care in Hawaiʻi is usually not the visit — it is the wait to get one. Statewide workforce data has found adult psychiatry shortages around 42% and child and adolescent psychiatry shortages around 45%, with some neighbor-island services more than 70% below need (Hawaiʻi Physician Workforce Report, 2023). Nationally, roughly 40% of Americans now live in a designated Mental Health Professional Shortage Area (HRSA, 2025). Behind those numbers are people waiting weeks or months while symptoms worsen.

We built OhanaPsych to answer that directly. New patients are welcome, and we work to see you as soon as we can — without the long waits common across Hawaiʻi. Because Hawaiʻi grants nurse practitioners Full Practice Authority, and because your provider is triple board-certified across family practice, psychiatric-mental-health, and addiction care, we can evaluate, diagnose, and — when appropriate — start medication management in a single, continuous relationship, rather than sending you to three different waitlists.

Hawaiʻi families have made us one of the most-reviewed psychiatric practices in the state — 4.7 stars across 700+ Google reviews.

What a telehealth visit covers

A telehealth visit with OhanaPsych can include a full psychiatric evaluation, online medication management and refills, treatment for depression, anxiety, ADHD, bipolar disorder, PTSD, and substance-use concerns, and follow-up care to keep your treatment on track. We provide telepsychiatry for adults and — where clinically appropriate — child and adolescent care, so families can be seen together rather than scattered across providers and islands. If you already have a provider and want a second opinion or a faster medication review, that is welcome too.

Lasting access by telehealth

As we complete the final stages of becoming a Rural Health Clinic (RHC), telehealth for mental-health care is here to stay with us. Under Medicare’s rural-health rules, RHCs are permanently authorized to provide behavioral and mental-health care by telehealth — including into your home, anywhere in Hawaiʻi — not under the temporary flexibilities that expire and must be renewed. (Prescribing of controlled medications still follows the separate Ryan Haight Act and DEA rules.) For our patients, that means dependable, lasting telehealth access to the care you need.

Wherever you live, OhanaPsych is your statewide practice. We provide care across the entire state of Hawaiʻi by telehealth, reaching every island — Hawaiʻi Island, Maui, Oʻahu, Kauaʻi, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, and Niʻihau. If you would rather be seen in person, you have that option at our offices in Hilo and Honolulu.

When to reach out — and when it’s an emergency

If something is weighing on you and you’d like to talk with a psychiatric provider, you don’t need to be in crisis to reach out. New patients are welcome; call (808) 777-9460 or start your request online.

If you or someone you love is thinking about suicide or self-harm, get help right away. Call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org). In Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi CARES is available by calling or texting 988, or at 808-832-3100 / 800-753-6879. In a life-threatening emergency, call 911.

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Medically reviewed by George Mackel, MSN, APRN, NP-C, PMHNP-BC, CARN-AP — President & Owner, OhanaPsych / Ohana Care Clinic.
Last reviewed: June 28, 2026. Citations verified: July 5, 2026.

This page is general health education from OhanaPsych. It is not a substitute for a personal evaluation by a qualified clinician who knows your situation, and reading it does not create a provider–patient relationship. If you think you may have a mental health condition, reach out to us or another licensed provider. In an emergency, call 911.

References

Hawaiʻi/Pacific Basin Area Health Education Center. (2024). Hawaiʻi physician workforce report 2023. AHEC. https://www.ahec.hawaii.edu/

Health Resources and Services Administration. (2025). State of the behavioral health workforce, 2025. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://bhw.hrsa.gov/

Hilty, D. M., Ferrer, D. C., Parish, M. B., Johnston, B., Callahan, E. J., & Yellowlees, P. M. (2013). The effectiveness of telemental health: A 2013 review. Telemedicine and e-Health, 19(6), 444–454. https://doi.org/10.1089/tmj.2013.0075

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2026). Telehealth policy updates. Telehealth.HHS.gov. https://telehealth.hhs.gov/providers/telehealth-policy/telehealth-policy-updates

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services & Drug Enforcement Administration. (2025). Third temporary extension of COVID-19 telemedicine flexibilities for prescription of controlled medications.

Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes § 291C-137 (2025). Mobile electronic devices. Hawaiʻi State Legislature. https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/vol05_ch0261-0319/HRS0291C/HRS_0291C-0137.htm

Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes § 453-1.3 (2025). Practice of telehealth. Hawaiʻi State Legislature. https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol10_Ch0436-0474/HRS0453/HRS_0453-0001_0003.htm