Youth mental health challenges keep mounting after Maui wildfires

By MEGAN TAGAMI of Honolulu Civil Beat, CAROLYN JONES of CalMatters and TATIANA DÍAZ RAMOS of Centro de Periodismo Investigativo

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Mia Palacio felt like she lost a piece of herself when wildfires destroyed her hometown of Lahaina.

She isolated from loved ones after the 2023 disaster while struggling to process the grief, often angry that her family didn’t have a permanent place to stay and that so many others were unable to evacuate.

Moving between high schools, she never felt welcome, Palacio said, and the pain only intensified as the months wore on. Finally, near the first anniversary of the fires, Palacio reached out for help.

Hundreds of students like Palacio have struggled mentally since the fires – and not all have received the help they need.

The Hawaii Department of Education estimates more than a third of Maui students lost a family member, sustained a serious injury or had a parent lose a job after the fires, which killed 102 people and damaged more than 3,300 properties in Lahaina.

AP is collaborating with Honolulu Civil Beat, CalMatters, Blue Ridge Public Radio, and Centro de Periodismo Investigativo in Puerto Rico to examine how school communities are recovering from the disruption of natural disasters.

Two years later, many in Lahaina are ready to return to normal. But therapists say students’ mental health challenges continue to mount.

That’s common after a disaster, especially at the two-year mark, when adrenaline wears off and stress remains high, said Christopher Knightsbridge, one of several researchers at the University of Hawaii who has studied the well-being of Lahaina fire survivors. While kids may feel numb immediately following a disaster, after two years, they’re facing the toll of constant uncertainty and change, he said.

It’s a phenomenon seen wherever schooling has been disrupted by natural disasters, reporting by Honolulu Civil Beat, The Associated Press and several other news outlets shows. But a couple years after the disaster, schools are not always prepared with extra mental health supports.

On Maui, the island is dealing with an ongoing shortage of specialists. In the past few years, the number of psychiatrists serving youth has dropped from four to two, even as demand has grown.

“The crisis isn’t over,” Knightsbridge said.

Anxiety triggered by wind or small fires

Palacio made progress with the help of a school counselor and then a local organization that supports teens’ mental health through outdoor activities and adventures.

The senior at Lahainaluna High School said she’s now more comfortable confiding in others and controlling her emotions. She takes pride in mentoring younger students who also have struggled since the fires.

Two years in, many kids still wrestle with depression and anxiety.

DayJahiah Valdivia, a senior at Kīhei Charter School, said her stress levels spike when there are strong winds or small brush fires. Valdivia lives in Upcountry Maui, which also faced wildfires that burned over a thousand acres of land on the same day as the 2023 Lahaina fires. Her home was spared, but it took months for her family to return because their property was covered in soot and needed professional cleaning.

She feels less anxious now that her family members have discussed their escape plan for future disasters. But a summer fire near a friend’s home in Central Maui renewed her fears about her loved ones’ safety.

“The anxiety never really wore off,” she said. On windy days, it was especially difficult to concentrate in class or feel safe.

In a University of Hawaii study of fire survivors conducted in 2024, just over half of children reported symptoms of depression, and 30% were likely facing an anxiety disorder. Nearly half of kids in the study, ages 10 to 17, were experiencing PTSD.

Children in disaster-torn towns across the U.S. can relate.

In Paradise, California, where the 2018 Camp Fire took 85 lives, a protracted period of disillusionment followed what some called the “hero phase,” when the community pulled together and vowed to resurrect their town. Both Lahaina and Paradise had housing shortages after their fires, so families had to move away or live with friends to go to school or work in the area. In general, students who don’t have a permanent living arrangement tend to struggle more academically and have more behavioral challenges, research shows.

Many Paradise students still struggle with anxiety and grief, seven years later, making it difficult to fully engage in school. A year after the Camp Fire, 17% of students were homeless, and the suspension rate was 7.4%, compared to 2.5% statewide. The suspension rate remained nearly triple the state average last year, and more than 26% were chronically absent.

Aryah Berkowitz, who lost her home, two dogs and her family’s business in the Paradise blaze, dealt with lingering behavioral challenges following the disaster. For nearly a year afterward, her family of seven, plus a pair of surviving pit bull-Labrador mixes, lived with a friend in nearby Chico, sharing two bedrooms and a bathroom. Berkowitz, then in sixth grade, slept on the couch.

“I was having to help my family a lot and wasn’t able to handle it,” said Berkowitz , once a high-achieving student who was suspended twice after the fire. “I was holding it inside and took it out on other people. Some days I’d just walk out of class.”

Back on Maui, many students similarly disengaged from school.

In a state survey of Maui students in the first year after the fires, roughly half of kids said they were having trouble focusing in class or felt upset when they were reminded of the wildfires.

Some have struggled to retain class material or simply stopped attending in-person classes as they moved between hotel rooms and temporary housing, Lahainaluna High teacher Jarrett Chapin said. A few moved to online learning as their families faced continued instability.

“They just sort of vanished,” Chapin said.

Maui’s ongoing shortage of mental health staff

Maui has long dealt with medical workforce challenges. Even before the fires, it faced a shortage of mental health professionals because they struggled with the state’s high cost of living and housing shortage.

The fires brought burnout and greater economic obstacles, only exacerbating the issue. Since then, Hawaii’s education department has tried to bulk up Maui’s mental health staff by bringing in providers from neighbor islands and the mainland and, more recently, using a $2 million federal grant to support students.

But hiring mental health staff has been so difficult that even the federal money hasn’t made much of a dent. In the first nine months of the grant, the state education department primarily used the money to bus displaced students from other parts of the island to Lahaina schools.

The state has used the money to hire five part-time mental health providers working with students and staff, including one specialist who works in the evenings with students living as boarders on Lahainaluna’s campus, said Kimberly Lessard, a Department of Education district specialist.