Bill Text: HI SB881 | 2019 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relating To Health.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2019-01-24 - Referred to CPH, WAM. [SB881 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2019-SB881-Introduced.html

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THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	881
THIRTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2019
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

 

relating to health.

 

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 

     SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that the State is facing a severe shortage of resources to effectively address the needs of individuals committed to the custody of the director of health or the director of public safety who may require strict security and intensive inpatient mental health treatment.  For over twenty years, the Hawaii state hospital in Kaneohe has come to serve a forensic population, as virtually every patient admitted comes to the hospital by court order.  Forensic patients are patients who have been charged with a crime, and most have been diagnosed with a severe and persistent mental illness, substance addiction, or both.  Many of the inmates and detainees in jails and prisons have a history of violence and have significant needs for psychiatric care, including inpatient hospitalization.

     The legislature further finds that while admissions to the Hawaii state hospital decreased slightly in 2017, forensic utilization of the hospital remained strong.  The growing need to address this forensic psychiatric population has created a strain on the staff and programs.  For example, the buildings currently in use at the Hawaii state hospital were designed to serve a population of individuals very different from those who are there at present.

     The purpose of this Act is to:

     (1)  Establish a task force to study the needs of the populations to be served by the new inpatient psychiatric facility and develop a coordinated interagency action plan to implement the needed services; and

     (2)  Appropriate funds to address identified gaps in facilities and services by developing a suitable 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.

     SECTION 2.  (a)  The department of health shall convene a task force that includes representation from the department of health, judiciary, department of the attorney general, department of public safety, state procurement office, department of accounting and general services, and other relevant legal, law enforcement, and mental health organizations.

     (b)  The task force shall study the needs of the populations to be served by the construction of a new inpatient psychiatric facility.  The task force shall develop a coordinated interagency action plan to implement services at the new inpatient psychiatric facility.

     (c)  The department of health shall submit the interagency action plan and plans to build a secure inpatient psychiatric facility to the legislature, no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular session of 2020.

     (d)  The department of health shall commence building a secure inpatient psychiatric facility no later than January 1, 2021.

     SECTION 3.  The director of finance is authorized to issue general obligation bonds in the sum of $250,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary and the same sum or so much thereof as may be necessary is appropriated for fiscal year 2019-2020 for the purpose of planning, design, and construction of a secure inpatient psychiatric facility to serve the mentally ill who need stricter security and inmates and detainees who need a higher level of mental health care.

     The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of health for the purposes of this Act.

     SECTION 4.  The appropriation made for the capital improvement project authorized by this Act shall not lapse at the end of the fiscal biennium for which the appropriation is made; provided that all moneys from the appropriation unencumbered as of June 30, 2022, shall lapse as of that date.

     SECTION 5.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2019.

 

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________

 

 

Report Title:

Hawaii State Hospital; Inpatient Psychiatric Facility; Task Force; Appropriation

 

Description:

Authorizes the director of finance to issue general obligation bonds for the department of health to develop a secure inpatient psychiatric facility at Hawaii state hospital to serve the mentally ill who need stricter security and inmates and detainees who need a higher level of mental health care.  Requires the department of health to establish a task force to study the needs of the populations to be served by the psychiatric facility and develop a coordinated interagency action plan to implement services at the new inpatient psychiatric facility.

 

 

 

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