Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 72 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to request that the Department of Health, Department of Human Services, Office of the Public Guardian, and all providers of long-term care services to consider transfer trauma before relocating facility residents.

Testimony in support of this measure was received from the Department of Health, Department of Human Services, State Council on Developmental Disabilities, Hawaii Disability Rights Center, and AARP Hawaii.

Your Committees find that transfer trauma is a well-documented medical and psychological phenomenon that can cause severe illness or even death, and whose effects are more pronounced in the elderly and the physically and mentally impaired. However, there is no provision in the current law that takes into account transfer trauma as decisions are made which affect the transfer of care home residents. Protocols must be established that addresses relocating residents of long-term care facilities from one setting to another.

Your Committees have amended this measure by making technical, non-substantive changes for the purposes of clarity and style.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Human Services that are attached to this report, your Committees concur with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 72, as amended herein, recommend that it be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, in the form attached hereto as S.C.R. No. 72, S.D. 1.