REPORT TITLE:
Neurotraining center


DESCRIPTION:
Establishes a task force to identify and eliminate public policy
barriers to neurotraining services.  Establishes a community-
based neurotraining research, education, and training
infrastructure.  (HB1903 HD1)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                        1903
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES                H.B. NO.           H.D. 1
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2000                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
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                   A  BILL  FOR  AN  ACT

RELATING TO BRAIN INJURY.



BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 1      SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that the problem of
 
 2 traumatic brain injury and its effects are serious and far
 
 3 reaching.  Injury is the leading cause of mortality among
 
 4 Americans under forty-five years of age and traumatic brain
 
 5 injury is responsible for the majority of these deaths.
 
 6 Traumatic brain injury claims more than fifty-six thousand
 
 7 American lives annually and is the cause of hospitalization for
 
 8 an estimated three hundred seventy-three thousand Americans
 
 9 annually.  In Hawaii, the Hawaii health systems corporation
 
10 estimates that twelve hundred people are discharged annually from
 
11 Hawaii's hospitals with traumatic brain injury.
 
12      The impact of a traumatic brain injury can be devastating.
 
13 In children, traumatic brain injury is likely to result in
 
14 multiple functional limitations and long-term disabilities,
 
15 thereby interrupting or delaying normal development.  In addition
 
16 to physical difficulties, traumatic brain injury victims and
 
17 their families face social, emotional, and financial problems.
 
18 The average medical cost for a three to six months initial
 
19 hospitalization for a traumatic brain injury is $75,000.  The
 

 
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 1 survivor of a severe brain injury typically faces five to ten
 
 2 years of intensive treatment at an estimated cost in excess of
 
 3 $4,000,000 to $7,000,000.
 
 4      The legislature further finds that neurotraining services is
 
 5 a state-of-the-art outpatient therapy grounded in psychological
 
 6 and neurological principles that enables individuals to overcome
 
 7 and improve deficits that result from central nervous system
 
 8 dysfunctions.  Unlike other rehabilitation programs where a
 
 9 client learns to compensate for one's deficits, neurotraining is
 
10 categorized as "deficit-specific", which means that attention is
 
11 focused directly on identified brain function losses.
 
12 Neurotraining's emphasis is on the mental process instead of any
 
13 particular subject content, such as reading, writing, or math.
 
14 Motivation is a key factor in this training because of its direct
 
15 approach to the difficulties faced by the client.
 
16      The legislature further finds that the Craine Institute of
 
17 Neuropsychology Community-based Healthcare is continuing the
 
18 development of neurotraining services as a private sector
 
19 initiative, and is leveraging federal, national, and local
 
20 foundation and corporate resources to make Hawaii the
 
21 neuropsychology center of the world.  The institute takes a
 
22 community-based, holistic approach that promotes participation in
 
23 activities for healthy lifestyles to increase health-affirming,
 

 
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 1 continuity of habits to reduce the risk of brain injuries from
 
 2 initially occuring.  Additionally, the institute addresses the
 
 3 multi-faceted, cross-cutting issue of brain injury prevention,
 
 4 and establishes sustainable cost-effective and culturally
 
 5 relevant solutions.
 
 6      The collaboration operates on the premise that it "makes
 
 7 SENSE" (Synergy of Entreprenurial Networks Sustained
 
 8 Effectiveness) to develop local action that has the potential to
 
 9 stimulate global improvements in education, health care, economic
 
10 development, the environment, the arts, and any other social
 
11 sector field.  Entrepreneurial best business practices are used
 
12 to recognize problems and relentlessly pursue new viable
 
13 opportunities for private sector development.  Ultimately, the
 
14 result of neurotraining services will help an under recognized
 
15 and underserved traumatic brain injury population achieve
 
16 outcomes consistent with each individual's unique strengths,
 
17 resources, priorities, concerns, abilities, capabilities,
 
18 interests, and informed choices of the individual's families and
 
19 caregivers.
 
20      The purpose of this Act is to:
 
21      (1)  Establish a task force to identify and eliminate public
 
22           policy barriers to neurotraining services; and
 

 
 
 
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 1      (2)  Establish a community-based neurotraining research,
 
 2           education, and training infrastructure.
 
 3      SECTION 2.  (a)  There is established a task force in the
 
 4 department of business, economic development, and tourism to
 
 5 identify and eliminate public policy barriers, including
 
 6 duplication of services and pooled resources, to neurotraining
 
 7 services.
 
 8      The primary outcome objective is to nurture private sector
 
 9 provider services and cost-benefit analysis accountability that
 
10 have national and international public policy implications for
 
11 health care and social services self-sufficiency.  The secondary
 
12 goal is to meet, by program effectiveness, the demands for
 
13 services addressing the needs of an under recognized and
 
14 underserved traumatic brain injured population to live in the
 
15 least restrictive environment at their highest potential
 
16 possible.
 
17      (b)  The members of the task force shall be composed of:
 
18      (1)  The director of business, economic development, and
 
19           tourism, or the director's designee;
 
20      (2)  The director of health or the director's designee;
 
21      (3)  The director of human services or the director's
 
22           designee; and
 

 
 
 
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 1      (4)  The superintendent of education or the superintendent's
 
 2           designee.
 
 3      The director of business, economic development, and tourism
 
 4 shall serve as the chair of the task force.
 
 5      (c)  The task force shall report its findings and
 
 6 recommendations to the legislature no later than twenty days
 
 7 prior to the convening of the regular session of 2001.
 
 8      (d)  The task force shall be repealed on June 30, 2001.
 
 9      SECTION 3.  There is appropriated out of the general
 
10 revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $1 or so much thereof
 
11 as may be necessary for fiscal year 2000-2001 to establish a
 
12 community-based neurotraining research, education, and training
 
13 infrastructure as a niche human services diversified economic
 
14 development strategy for local and global situations; provided
 
15 that funds shall be released on the basis of one dollar of
 
16 general revenues for every four dollars of revenues received from
 
17 the private sector.
 
18      The sum appropriated shall be used to leverage national,
 
19 local, and federal grant funds and in-kind resources for the
 
20 private sector development to stimulate the economy and to show.
 
21      The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of
 
22 business, economic development, and tourism for the purposes of
 
23 this Act.
 
24      SECTION 4.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2000.