STAND. COM. REP. NO. 182

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1205

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Human Services and Public Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 1205 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CAREGIVING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds for the Executive Office on Aging to develop and implement a volunteer-hours exchange pilot program in two communities.

     The Department of Health, the Policy Advisory Board for Elder Affairs, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 142, and two individuals submitted testimony in support of this measure.

     Your Committee finds that over two hundred forty thousand Hawaii residents are age sixty or older.  Family caregivers provide care for a large percentage of these older adults, who overwhelmingly prefer to live and receive care in their homes.  However, there are also many older adults who need care, but do not have family living in Hawaii who can assist them.

     Many Hawaii residents volunteer their time for the benefit of others, and a structured program that offers credit to them for their volunteered caregiving hours could substantially increase the level of caregiving services available to older adults.  Volunteers receive a credit for each volunteer hour provided.  Accumulated volunteer-hours can then be used by the caregiver for services that the caregiver needs or donated by the caregiver to another person.  Programs that encourage volunteer reciprocity among residents have been successful at over two hundred fifty time banks in the United States.

     It is the Committee's intent to encourage and support family caregivers by requiring the Executive Office on Aging to develop and implement a volunteer-hours exchange pilot program in Hawaii.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Adding additional language regarding volunteer-hours exchange programs to the purpose section; and

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive changes for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services and Public Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1205, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1205, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services and Public Housing,

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair