STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2072

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 2000

                                   RE:  S.B. No. 2489
                                        S.D. 1




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2000
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Health and Human Services, to which was
referred S.B. No. 2489 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO BRAIN INJURY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to establish a task force to
identify and eliminate policy barriers to neurotraining services
and to establish a community-based neurotraining research,
education, and training infrastructure.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure
from the Department of Business, Economic Development, and
Tourism, Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, Craine
Institute of Neuropsychology Community-based Healthcare, Art
Calendar Hawaii Database, and two private individuals.

     Your Committee finds that the problem of traumatic brain
injury and its effects are serious and far reaching.  Injury is
the leading cause of mortality among Americans under forty-five
years of age and traumatic brain injury is responsible for the
majority of these deaths.  Traumatic brain injury claims more
than fifty-six thousand American lives annually and is the cause
of hospitalization for an estimated three hundred seventy-three
thousand Americans annually.  In Hawaii, the Hawaii health
systems corporation estimates that twelve hundred people are
discharged annually from Hawaii's hospitals with traumatic brain
injury.


 
a                                                     SB2489 SD1
                                   STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2072
                                   Page 2


     Your Committee further finds that neurotraining services is
a state of the art outpatient therapy grounded in psychological
and neurological principles that enables individuals to overcome
and improve deficits that result from central nervous system
dysfunctions.  Unlike other rehabilitation programs where a
client learns to compensate for his or her deficits,
neurotraining is categorized as "deficit-specific", which means
that attention is focused directly on identified brain function
losses.  Neurotraining's emphasis is on the mental process
instead of any particular subject content, such as reading,
writing, or math.  Motivation is a key factor in this training
because of its direct approach to the difficulties faced by the
client.  This measure is intended to plant the seed that will
germinate into a promising industry in Hawaii for traumatic brain
injury research.

     Your Committee has amended this measure to replace the
Director of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism with a
person from the Department of Human Services designated by the
Director of Human Services to serve as chair of the task force.
Technical, nonsubstantive changes also were made.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Health and Human Services that is attached to this
report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose
of S.B. No. 2489, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass
Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2489,
S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Health and Human
                                   Services,



                                   ______________________________
                                   SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair

 
a                                                     SB2489 SD1