STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2470

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2737

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Human Services and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2737 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO A BEHAVIORAL HEALTH LONG-TERM CARE FACILITY,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to authorize the issuance of general obligation bonds to develop a long-term care facility at the Guensberg building on the Hawaii State Hospital campus.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, Hawaii Disability Rights Center, Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition, Partners in Care, and Hawai‘i Psychological Association.

Your Committees find that the renovation of the Guensberg building, the oldest building in operation at the Hawaii State Hospital campus, seeks to address the long-term needs of patients that do not require inpatient psychiatric hospital level of care but also have behavioral needs that make it difficult for them to be admitted to another facility, as well as patients with co-occurring substance use disorders and serious mental illnesses. According to testimony from the Department of Health, the renovation will provide a total of ninety hospital beds, with forty beds dedicated to long-term behavioral care and fifty for secure residential co-occurring mental health and substance abuse treatment.

Your Committees have amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2737, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2737, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Human Services and Health,

________________________________ JARRETT KEOHOKALOLE, Chair

________________________________ JOY A. SAN BUENAVENTURA, Chair