On this week’s episode of the One O‘ahu Podcast, Executive Director for the Institute for Human Services (IHS), Connie Mitchell, and Attorney Christopher Thomas join host Brandi Higa to discuss the call to action by Mayor Blangiardi and other leaders to serve as advocates for homeless individuals as Guardians Ad Litem, how Assisted Community Treatment (ACT) works at helping individuals with severe mental illness, and why this work is critically important.
Call to Action
At an event held in ʻAʻala Park on April 15, 2025, Mayor Blangiardi and other leaders addressing Hawaiʻi’s homeless crisis issued an urgent call to action asking community members to answer the call and serve as Guardians Ad Litem.
“A Guardian Ad Litem is really supposed to be a caretaker for someone going through a legal process but is not actually representing their specific legal need,” explained Attorney Christopher Thomas. “A Guardian Ad Litem in our system they’re basically trying to take as much information as possible and trying to figure out, given all these parameters, what’s going to be best for this person moving forward?”
Local lawyers and anyone interested in taking on the crucial task of a GAL are encouraged to contact the Hawaiʻi State Judiciary at: gal@courts.hawaii.gov.
Assisted Community Treatment
Guardians Ad Litem (GAL) are court-appointed advocates required for nearly all Assisted Community Treatment (ACT) cases. ACT provides a legal pathway for treatment plans for the most at-risk members of our community, specifically individuals with such severe mental illness that they cannot identify that their health is in peril.
“I think it’s also to avoid them being jailed, quite frankly, because so many of the people don’t know what they’re doing,” added IHS Executive Director Connie Mitchell. “Their behaviors in the community often garner the attention of the police and then they’re arrested.”
Currently, there are only two GAL available for the courts to call on for ACT cases filed on Oʻahu.
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GAL are compensated by the judiciary at a rate of $60 per hour for work conducted outside of the courtroom and $90 in the courtroom.
“I always tell folks that want to get involved that it’s kind of nice to get out of your office, walk the streets a little bit, meet people and get a bunch of information and kind of you know, see a little bit different perspective on how legal work can help people out,” said Thomas.
Attorneys with a license to practice in Hawaiʻi are preferred because of their expertise. However, professionals with licenses in social work, psychology, or other relevant human services fields can do the job as well.
