STAND. COM. REP. NO. 262

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 940

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 940 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO KUPUNA CARE,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to support the Kupuna Care program by appropriating funds to the Alzheimer's Association, Aloha Chapter, to support and promote participation in elder registration services in the State.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Executive Office on Aging; Alzheimer's Association, Aloha Chapter; Policy Advisory Board for Elder Affairs; The Plaza at Mililani; and one individual.

 

     Your Committee finds that an estimated twenty-eight thousand Hawaii residents suffer from Alzheimer's disease and related dementia.  The risk of developing the disease doubles every five years after the age of sixty-five.  Six out of ten people with Alzheimer's disease and related dementia will wander during the course of their illness.  Wandering can be dangerous and sometimes life-threatening, and the stress can weigh heavily on caregivers and family members.

 

     Your Committee further finds that there are registration services through which individuals who wander can be more easily located, identified, and returned safely to their families.  These services also aid police and other first responders in the safe return of elders who are found but who cannot remember essential contact information.

 

     Your Committee also finds that the goal of an elder wanderer's registration program is to significantly increase enrollment and participation in a wanderer's registry, so that families and first responders have a single point of contact, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, to access information and locate or return found elders.

 

     Your Committee has heard the concerns of this measure appropriating funds as a grant pursuant to chapter 42F, Hawaii Revised Statutes, which is contrary to the current Kupuna Care program funding system.

 

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Removing specific references to the Kupuna Care program;

 

     (2)  Amending section 1 of this measure to reflect the measure's amended purpose;

 

     (3)  Changing the appropriation amount from an unspecified sum to $50,000; and

 

     (4)  Changing the expending agency from the Department of Human Services to the Department of Health.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 940, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 940, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

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

 

 

 

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair