Report Title:

Appropriation; Center on Aging Research and Education

Description:

Establishes four additional full-time equivalent faculty positions at the University of Hawaii's center on aging research and education to assist in the fulfillment of its mission.  Makes an appropriation.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	2110
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

relating to aging.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

     SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that the mission of the University of Hawaii center on aging research and education is to assure the well-being of the State's older adults by stimulating and coordinating gerontological and aging instruction, research, and community services.  The legislature further finds that a goal of the center on aging research and education is to develop a research center that is renowned for its generation of knowledge that supports the development of relevant social and economic policies pertaining to the elder population, as no such entity exists in Hawaii or the region.

     The population of the State of Hawaii currently has the longest life expectancy and the fastest-growing elderly population in the nation.  While this represents a triumph of public health, the situation will also present many challenges to the State in the future.

     To help prepare to face these challenges, the University of Hawaii needs a center that is focused on aging.  Gerontology is a multi-disciplinary field, engaging people from social work, medicine, nursing, law, public health, architecture, engineering, and a range of other areas.  The center on aging research and education will help concentrate resources from various University of Hawaii departments and schools to help:

     (1)  Identify ways to expand work and volunteer options for healthy seniors to keep the seniors contributing to society;

     (2)  Test ways to keep people healthier as they age so that disability can be prevented or delayed, which will represent savings in both human capital and health care costs;

     (3)  Develop ways to adapt homes and communities so that seniors can continue to age-in-place and avoid institutionalization;

     (4)  Respond to the needs of policy decision-makers at all levels of government and in the private sector; and

     (5)  Train an adequate, quality workforce for eldercare, reducing the need to import eldercare workers and thereby helping to defray the cost to the State.

     However, reliable general funding is necessary to attract renowned scholars from the Asian and Pacific regions and nationally to study the aging phenomenon and serve to train professionals for work in the field of gerontology.  The legislature believes that, given proper staffing levels, the center on aging research and education can become a viable research and training center for addressing local and Asian and Pacific regional issues.

     The purpose of this Act is to establish four additional full-time equivalent faculty positions at the center on aging research and education to assist the center in the fulfillment of its mission, and to appropriate funds for that purpose.

     SECTION 2.  The University of Hawaii shall establish four additional full-time equivalent faculty positions at the center on aging research and education to assist the center in the fulfillment of its mission.

     SECTION 3.  There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $           or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2008-2009 for four additional full-time equivalent faculty positions to staff the center on aging research and education and other expenses.

     The sum appropriated shall be expended by the University of Hawaii for the purposes of this Act.

     SECTION 4.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2008.

INTRODUCED BY:

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