Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 1469 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to provide that communications made by participants in a peer support counseling session shall be confidential and may not be disclosed by the participants.

Testimony supporting this measure was received from the Honolulu Fire Department, Honolulu Police Department, State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers, Hawaii Fire Fighters Association, and one individual. The Office of Information Practices submitted comments on this measure. A visiting police psychologist from California submitted oral testimony.

Your Committee finds that law enforcement and emergency services personnel provide a valuable public service for which the residents of our State express tremendous gratitude. However, as they perform their duties, these heroic individuals endure tremendous stress on a daily basis. Stress levels are especially high when law enforcement and emergency services personnel must deal with crises that involve horrendous injuries and fatal incidents. Peer support counseling sessions provide a safe, secure, and supportive venue for law enforcement and emergency services to manage their stress freely without fear of retribution and judgment. Peer counseling sessions have been utilized throughout the country with success. However, there continue to be instances where individuals refuse to participate in these therapeutic sessions because the privacy of their communications was not protected under law. Your Committee finds that this measure sufficiently sets in place safeguards to ensure that individuals can participate in peer counseling sessions freely with their privacy preserved.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1469, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1469, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.