The Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center is hosting a free community event Wednesday in celebration of its 50th anniversary.

The center has grown significantly since its opening, becoming a lifeline and innovative resource for the community, which lost its only source of medical care when the Waianae Sugar Mill closed in 1957.

“This is a rural community,” said Chief Medical Officer Stephen Bradley. “It’s difficult for a lot of the folks out here, both physically because of the distances and financially because it’s a highly underprivileged area, for them to move outside of the West side to seek health care or any other services.”

WCCHC opened its doors in 1972 with only one doctor and five staff members, functioning more as an urgent- care provider, said Bradley, who has been working there for almost 30 years.

Once residents became acclimated to having health care close to home, the center widened its spectrum of medical care to eventually include such fields as internal medicine, pregnancy and pediatric care, and a large behavioral health department.

Bradley said the facility lives up to its name as a comprehensive health center by being able to address all aspects of a person’s well-being in a single visit.

“Folks who come in here get the full gamut of treatment,” he said. “Sometimes someone will come in for a cold, but it’s not the cold that’s their real problem. It’s the family issues they’re having, it’s that they’re depressed or anxious — it’s a number of things. So we can treat them for their cold, but we can also say, ‘Hold on a second. Let me get you over to a behavioral health provider so they can help you as well.’”

WCCHC’s staff recognized early on that effective treatment for area residents required “warm handoffs” from one staff member directly to another, since referrals often resulted in missed follow-up appointments, according to Bradley.

“We realized that very often in behavioral health the need is immediate,” he said. “You have to have someone there at hand to take them immediately and help with their problem.”

WCCHC’s capacity to do this contributed to its standing as a certified training site for health care providers in various practices. It is also the largest postgraduate training site for psychologists in the state, Bradley said.

Being in a community with a large Native Hawaiian population, the Waianae health care center has embraced Native Hawaiian values since its inception, Bradley said.

It established a Native Hawaiian Healing Center two decades ago that offers lomilomi massage therapy, hooponopono conflict resolution, laau lapaau herbal healing and laau kahea spiritual healing. The center is governed by a Kupuna Council of Elders comprising master practitioners who uphold and preserve the center’s cultural practices, according to the WCCHC’s website.

Bearing in mind that Native Hawaiians developed higher likelihoods of chronic illness after Western colonization, “having a Native Hawaiian presence in our healing center really does help to try and deal with that inequity, and also to help patients get the best sort of care that they possibly can,” Bradley said.

These days, WCCHC is continuing efforts to make its health care more accessible through technology. Kiosks were recently installed in several locations to facilitate telehealth appointments, Bradley said, and remote devices are available for home use by at-risk patients that allow doctors to monitor blood sugar and oxygen levels, blood pressure and other metrics.

“Even though we’re a community health center and a disadvantaged community, we try to give the latest and greatest in care that we can,” he said.

Today the center has over 650 staff members who serve about 36,000 patients throughout West Oahu, according to a news release.

WCCHC is anticipating more than 800 attendees at Wednesday’s “‘Ohana Night Under the Stars” celebration from 3 to 8 p.m. at the center’s main campus, with shuttle service available from Waianae Mall.

Activities will include a movie about the health center’s journey, keiki and health activities, food trucks and free chili and popcorn. Entertainment will be provided by the Royal Hawaiian Band and the Nanakuli High and Intermediate School Performing Arts Center. Attendees are welcome to bring blankets and lawn chairs.

Registration is encouraged but not required. Register at wcchc.com/events.

Linsey Dower covers ethnic and cultural affairs and is a corps member of Report for America, a national service organization that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.