Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health, to which was referred H.C.R. No. 109 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to urge the Department of Health to reopen the Molokini mental health unit of Maui Memorial Medical Center.

The Hawaii Disability Rights Center, the Hawai'i Psychological Association, and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill O'ahu submitted testimony in support of this measure. The Department of Health, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, and the Regional Chief Executive Officer of the Maui Memorial Medical Center submitted comments.

Your Committee finds that there is an urgent need in Maui for a system of psychiatric care for children and adolescents. Since the Molokini unit of the Maui Memorial Medical Center closed in 2004, Maui families and their children in crisis are forced to seek help on Oahu. This delay in treatment and the lack of available on-call psychiatrists specializing in child and adolescent care exacerbate the crisis.

Following the close of the Molokini Unit, the Department of Health and the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation started working closely to reestablish child and adolescent psychiatry services on Maui. A crisis stabilization model is being proposed as a means of meeting urgent child and adolescent psychiatric health care needs without incurring the ongoing high costs of a full acute inpatient unit. Proponents envision crisis stabilization units in central Maui and Hilo that would focus on stabilizing the urgent medical crisis through intensive family treatment and psychiatric consultation.

Your Committee has amended this measure by conforming all of its provisions to the language in S.C.R. No. 93, S.D. 2. The amendment urges the Department of Health to assist in reopening the Molokini unit and to facilitate a stakeholder group, in cooperation with Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, to develop and implement crisis stabilization services at the Maui Memorial Medical Center.

The amendment specifies five integral elements for the stakeholder group to focus on during the development process of the crisis stabilization services, including exploring a partnership with Tripler Army Hospital's Psychiatry Department. The amendment also requests the Department of Health and Hawaii Health Systems Corporation to submit a report of the stakeholder group's activities, including any findings and recommendations, to the Legislature.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of H.C.R. No. 109, as amended herein, and recommends its adoption in the form attached hereto as H.C.R. No. 109, S.D. 1.