STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1487

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2023

RE: S.B. No. 894

S.D. 2

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Human Services and Health & Homelessness, to which was referred S.B. No. 894, S.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE OFFICE OF WELLNESS AND RESILIENCE,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Extend the sunset date of the Trauma-Informed Care Task Force established by Act 209, Session Laws of Hawaii 2021, to June 30, 2025, and require it to serve as an advisory board to the Office of Wellness and Resilience; and

(2) Beginning July 1, 2025, transfer the Office of Wellness and Resilience from the Office of the Governor to the Department of Human Services and formalize the Trauma-Informed Care Task Force as an advisory committee within the Office of Wellness and Resilience, to be known as the Wellness and Resilience Advisory Board.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Public Safety, Department of Human Services, Department of Health, Executive Office on Early Learning, Office of Wellness and Resilience, State Council on Mental Health, Kamehameha Schools, Hawai‘i Youth Services Network, Parents and Children Together, Hawai‘i Primary Care Association, HawaiiKidsCAN, Epic ‘Ohana, Hawai‘i Children's Action Network Speaks!, Hawai‘i Community Foundation, Hawai‘i Health & Harm Reduction Center, and six individuals.

Your Committees find that Act 209, Session Laws of Hawaii 2021, established a Trauma-Informed Care Task Force to address early adverse childhood experiences that can negatively impact the development in children through the development of a statewide framework for trauma-informed care. Your Committees further find that there is an ongoing need to provide comprehensive, coordinated, and culturally sensitive services to address the disproportionate health and economic impacts on low-income families, children, and youth caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Formalizing the Trauma-Informed Care Task Force within the Office of Wellness and Resilience will allow committee members and community stakeholders to help guide the Office of Wellness and Resilience and ensure that state agencies move toward a collaboration, shared purpose of trauma-informed care system reform.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Requiring the Trauma-Informed Task Force to serve as an advocacy board, rather than an advisory board, to the Office of Wellness and Resilience, and after the transition to the Department of Human Services, as the Wellness and Resilience Advocacy Board; and

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

Your Committees note that the Department of Health, in its testimony before your Committees, requested a transition date for the new advocacy board within the Office of Wellness and Resilience prior to June 30, 2024, as this could help with the establishment of the Office and potentially provide assistance during the Office's initial formative years.

Your Committees respectfully request that the Department of Health provide your Committee on Finance with a date certain for this transition. Your Committees further request that the Department of Health, Department of Human Services, and Office of Wellness and Resilience work with interested stakeholders on specific language for this measure and provide this consensus draft to your Committee on Finance, should it choose to deliberate on this measure further.

Your Committees grant prior concurrence on this measure to your Committee on Finance to make any amendments it deems necessary.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Health & Homelessness that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 894, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 894, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

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

____________________________ DELLA AU BELATTI, Chair

____________________________ JOHN M. MIZUNO, Chair