STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2015

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2579

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2579 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MENTAL HEALTH,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to authorize the Director of Finance to issue general obligation bonds and to appropriate funds for the Department of Health to develop a secure inpatient psychiatric facility in which services can be provided for the mentally ill who need stricter security, and for inmates and detainees who need a higher level of mental health care.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health; Department of Public Safety; Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, City and County of Honolulu; Hawaii Disability Rights Center; Hawaii Government Employees Association; Community Alliance for Mental Health; and two individuals.

     Your Committee finds that the Hawaii State Hospital is not equipped to be a forensic facility and lacks the capacity to serve the current needs of its patients.  Your Committee further finds that the State needs a secure inpatient psychiatric facility in order to promote greater safety for patients, staff, and the public.  A separate facility would appropriately house populations of mentally ill patients who need stricter security, as well as inmates and detainees who require a higher level of mental health care, with well-trained staff operating at a sensible ratio to the patients.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Adding language to require the Department of Health to establish a task force to study the needs of the populations that will be served by the inpatient psychiatric facility, develop a coordinated interagency action plan to implement services, and submit the interagency action plan to the Legislature; and

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

     Your Committee notes that providing mental health campus facilities, rather than a hospital setting only, would encourage the compassionate care of patients.

     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. 2579, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2579, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

____________________________

JOSH GREEN, Chair