RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, the State of Hawaii has an unusual population distribution with nearly 70 percent of residents living in urban areas in and around Honolulu and the remaining population spread across the neighbor islands; and

WHEREAS, most of the people living in rural areas are connected only by winding two-lane roads, making travel to population centers relatively slow; and

WHEREAS, the rural population is multi-ethnic and multi-cultural and, they have brought traditional health practices from their homelands, giving the islands a wide range of medical practices including traditional Western approaches, as well as herbal, massage, and homeopathic therapies largely from Asian cultures; and

WHEREAS, while Honolulu is the base for large hospitals and a growing medical school, healthcare in rural areas is diverse in practice and quality, resulting in adapted practices from both Western and Eastern methods of healthcare; and

WHEREAS, rural areas offer an exciting laboratory for the study of healthcare practices, but specialized training is needed for mental and physical health care practitioners in these regions; and

WHEREAS, there is only a loose network linking rural health care centers and little coordinated study of the healthcare practices existing in rural areas; and

WHEREAS, although these regions are unique because of their ethnic diversity, lessons learned in these areas may be applied to many rural locations across the United States to develop economical and effective approaches to health care; and

WHEREAS, the University of Hawaii at Hilo (UHH) is ideally suited to lead the development of a Rural Health Care Center that would conduct research on multi-cultural rural health care practices and train practitioners for these areas; and

WHEREAS, UHH has a baccalaureate-granting nursing program and is beginning a master's program in counseling psychology, both of which have a cross-cultural focus; and

WHEREAS, UHH has initiated a minor in occupational safety and health that also has a multi-cultural emphasis, and is designed to train individuals to work in the rural islands of the Pacific Basin; and

WHEREAS, UHH's College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Resource Management is developing a veterinarian technology program that will pioneer laserscopic surgery and adopt distance learning techniques to facilitate teaching and guidance in remote locations; and

WHEREAS, UHH has a National Science Foundation grant to train minority students to conduct research on medical issues, and is also currently engaged in a partnership with Hilo Hospital, the Veterans' Administration Clinic, and community hospitals on the Island of Hawaii to coordinate teaching and research in the health care field; and

WHEREAS, the aim of the present project is to build on existing efforts and establish the Rural Health Science Center of Hawaii (Center), representing a combination of UHH, federal healthcare programs, rural community hospitals, and alternative programs; and

WHEREAS, the Center would focus on providing both mental and physical healthcare in rural, multi-cultural regions, coordinating existing efforts in these regions, supplying data and information to remote sites, enhancing communication, and ensuring efficient use of rural healthcare efforts; and

WHEREAS, the Center would include a partnership with Labman, Inc., a medical practice in Waimea that has a mobile laboratory designed to take physiological measures, conduct laboratory analyses, and teach preventive medicine; and

WHEREAS, another goal of the Center would be to initiate and coordinate research on multi-cultural healthcare in rural regions, as well as support research to identify issues including elder care, alcoholism, substance abuse, integration of traditional and nontraditional healthcare practices, rural community responses to natural events, nutrition, and the effect of the environment on mental and physical health; and

WHEREAS, Hawaii's diverse physical environment provides an ideal setting for research on cultural approaches to healthcare in a variety of environments; and

WHEREAS, the Center would also involve training of mental and physical healthcare workers in multi-cultural and multi-environmental situations; and

WHEREAS, while the Center would help coordinate the placement of medical residents from the John Burns Medical School in Oahu, the central focus of the training would be on nurses and therapists who handle the bulk of healthcare duties in rural areas; and

WHEREAS, these practitioners would receive training in cultural issues related to healthcare and the use of healthcare facilities; now therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2003, the Senate concurring, that this body supports and encourages UHH's efforts to establish the Rural Health Science Center of Hawaii; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this body requests that UHH submit a report detailing plans for the establishment of the Rural Health Science Center of Hawaii, including cost estimates, and recommendations for legislation, to the Legislature no later than 20 days prior to the Regular Session of 2004; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor and the Chancellor of the University of Hawaii at Hilo.

Report Title:

UHH; Rural Health Science Center