Bill Text: HI SR70 | 2019 | Regular Session | Introduced


Bill Title: Requesting The Department Of Health To Convene A Task Force To Study The Needs Of The Populations To Be Served By A New Inpatient Psychiatric Facility And Develop A Coordinated Interagency Action Plan To Implement Needed Services, And Commence Building A Secure Inpatient Psychiatric Facility.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2019-03-12 - Referred to CPH. [SR70 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2019-SR70-Introduced.html

THE SENATE

S.R. NO.

70

THIRTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2019

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

SENATE RESOLUTION

 

 

requesting the department of health to convene a task force to study the needs of the populations to be served by A new inpatient psychiatric facility and develop a coordinated interagency action plan to implement needed services, and commence building a secure inpatient psychiatric facility.

 

 


     WHEREAS, 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; and

 

     WHEREAS, for over twenty years, the Hawaii State Hospital in Kaneohe has served a forensic population, as virtually every patient admitted comes to the hospital by court order; and

 

     WHEREAS, 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; and

 

     WHEREAS, 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; and

 

     WHEREAS, while admissions to the Hawaii State Hospital decreased slightly in 2017, forensic utilization of the hospital remains strong; and

 

     WHEREAS, the growing need to address this forensic psychiatric population has created a strain on the staff and programs; and

 

     WHEREAS, 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; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirtieth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2019, that the Department of Health is requested to convene a task force to:

 

     (1)  Study the needs of the populations to be served by the construction of a new inpatient psychiatric facility; and

 

     (2)  Develop a coordinated interagency action plan to implement services at the new inpatient psychiatric facility; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the task force is requested to include representation from the:

 

     (1)  Department of Health;

 

     (2)  Judiciary;

 

     (3)  Department of the Attorney General;

 

     (4)  Department of Public Safety;

 

     (5)  State Procurement Office;

 

     (6)  Department of Accounting and General Services; and

 

     (7)  Other relevant legal, law enforcement, and mental health organizations as determined by the Director of Health; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the task force is requested to 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; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the task force be dissolved on June 30, 2020; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Health is requested to commence building a secure inpatient psychiatric facility no later than January 1, 2021; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Director of Health, Attorney General, Director of Public Safety, Comptroller, Administrative Director of the Courts, and Administrator of the State Procurement Office.

 

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

_____________________________

 

 

Report Title: 

Department of Health; Task Force; Inpatient Psychiatric Facility

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