Report Title:

Family and Caregiver Support Services

Description:

Requires the Department of Health to provide certain family and caregiver support services to persons aged 60 and older and their families and caregivers, if resources are available. (SB2591 HD1)

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

2591

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2004

S.D. 2

STATE OF HAWAII

H.D. 1


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to family and caregiver support.

 

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

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the care provided annually by family caregivers for free has an estimated value of approximately $196,000,000,000. On the other hand, formal home care services are estimated to cost about $32,000,000,000 annually, and nursing home services cost about $83,000,000,000. Most people who need long-term care prefer to receive assistance and services at home and to stay in their communities, near family and friends, for as long as possible. Family caregivers provide over eighty per cent of home care services and over ninety per cent of all long-term care services. At least seventy-five per cent of all family care is provided by women. About two-thirds of older people living in the community rely solely on informal help, mainly from wives and adult daughters. Caregiving itself has become harder for all family caregivers partly because those who need long-term care are living longer with chronic illness and disabilities.

As long-term care costs continue to rise, it is in the interest of the State to devise mechanisms to assist family caregivers who care for the elderly and those who require at-home long-term care and keep them off medicaid and out of costly nursing homes. Families can be an important part of the solution to serious long-term care system problems such as budget and workforce shortages. Family caregivers can relieve state spending on nursing home care. During times of fiscal discipline, family caregiving can be a way to reduce costs without hurting the people the State is trying to serve.

SECTION 2. Chapter 321, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§321-   Provision of services; family and caregiver support. (a) The director of health, within the limits of state and federal resources allocated or available for the purposes of this section, shall provide family and caregiver support services necessary to maintain and enhance caregiving for persons sixty years of age or older in community-based homes that are not fee for service businesses.

(b) For the purposes of this section, "family and caregiver support" means a flexible and varied network of support that does not supplant community resources, and which is capable of supporting the individual families caring for persons sixty years of age or older. These services may include but are not limited to:

(1) Personal and family counseling, advice, mediation, and support groups;

(2) Information, education, and training about caregiving;

(3) Home-delivered meals;

(4) Assisted transportation and transportation;

(5) Bathing and personal care services;

(6) Rehabilitation services;

(7) Health maintenance;

(8) Homemaker and chore services;

(9) Adult day care and adult day health services;

(10) Respite care;

(11) Care plan services;

(12) Senior companion services; and

(13) Toll-free telephone help services."

SECTION 3. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.