U.S. District Judge David Ezra has signed an order ending more than 15 years of federal oversight of the state's mental health system.

The oversight, which began in 1991 with a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit alleging violations of the constitutional rights of patients at Hawai'i State Hospital, ended Thursday, state officials announced yesterday.

"This is a historic moment in the reform of state services for persons in our community with severe and persistent mental illness who need hospital care and community-based follow-up," state Department of Health Director Chiyome Fukino said.

"The state has made tremendous improvements in our mental health system, and ... we will continue to move forward to build on and improve the way these services are provided," she said.

The hospital emerged from oversight in late 2004, but the federal government kept watch over how the state provided services to the mentally ill in the community. On Oct. 24, Ezra cleared the way for the federal oversight to end when he essentially approved the latest federal magistrate's status report.