STAND. COM. REP. NO. 66

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1472

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 1472 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO BEHAVIORAL HEALTH SERVICES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to:

(1) Expand and enhance the suicide crisis hotline and crisis management services provided by contracted service providers through the Hawaii CARES Crisis Helpline;

(2) Expand and enhance the crisis mobile outreach services provided by contracted service providers through the Hawaii CARES Crisis Helpline;

(3) Expand licensed crisis residential shelter services provided by contracted service providers through the Hawaii CARES Crisis Helpline; and

(4) Expand bed stabilization services provided by contracted service providers through the Hawaii CARES Crisis Helpline.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health; Hawaii Disability Rights Center; Aloha House, Inc.; Democratic Party of Hawai‘i Kūpuna Caucus' Health and Medical Services Sub-Committee; Hawai‘i Health & Harm Reduction Center; and four individuals.

Your Committee finds that the Hawaii coordinated access resource entry system (CARES) crisis helpline is a statewide crisis call line open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, that connects Hawaii residents who are experiencing a mental health crisis with appropriate crisis response service providers to reduce unnecessary hospitalizations and arrests, and provides continual care by maintaining contact between the individual and service providers throughout the duration of treatment. Your Committee also finds that calls made from Hawaii to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, now known as the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, are routed to the Hawaii CARES crisis helpline. Your Committee further finds that the volume of calls to the Hawaii CARES crisis helpline has increased since July 2022, when the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline transitioned to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, which is an easy-to-remember, three-digit dialing code of "9-8-8". The funds appropriated by this measure will accommodate the increase in the volume of calls received by the Hawaii CARES crisis helpline to help ensure that individuals who access the Hawaii CARES crisis helpline directly or through the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline are provided with appropriate crisis intervention services and crisis care coordination.

Your Committee notes the Department of Health's testimony regarding their funding needs and urges the Department to submit to your Committee on Ways and Means for its consideration the requested amount of appropriations for the expansion and enhancement of the crisis mobile outreach services provided by contracted service providers through the Hawaii CARES crisis helpline, pursuant to this measure, including the breakdowns.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Clarifying that the Hawaii CARES is overseen by the Department of Health's Behavioral Health Administration and is managed by two separately contracted entities that specialize in behavioral health crisis response and substance use disorder treatment referrals, respectively;

(2) Replacing "9-8-8" with its official name, the "988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline" throughout the measure;

(3) Inserting an effective date of December 31, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

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

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health and Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1472, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1472, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

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

________________________________

JOY A. SAN BUENAVENTURA, Chair