STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2980

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 2559

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 2559, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MENTAL HEALTH,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Require the family court to consider assisted community treatment as an alternative to commitment to a psychiatric facility for a person subject to a petition for involuntary hospitalization; and

 

     (2)  Make permanent statutes establishing criteria and procedures for family court ordered assisted community treatment.

 

     Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Judiciary, Department of Health, Department of the Attorney General, and one individual.

 

     Your Committee finds that there are serious problems of high incarceration and hospitalization rates of those with severe mental illness.  Assisted community treatment provides an opportunity for people with serious mental illness to be treated in the least restrictive setting and reduces the trend toward criminalizing mental illness.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Deleting language that would have required a petitioner for involuntary hospitalization to request for the alternative relief of assisted community treatment and request that the family court order the appropriate treatment alternative;

 

     (2)  Deleting language that would have required that the notice in a petition for involuntary hospitalization include a statement that the family court may order assisted community treatment in lieu of involuntary hospitalization;

 

     (3)  Deleting language that would have required that if the family court finds that a person does not meet criteria for involuntary hospitalization, the family court assess whether the person meets criteria for assisted community treatment and, if so, order that treatment to commence;

 

     (4)  Deleting language that would have specified that a petition for assisted community treatment may be initiated independently or as a request for alternative relief in a petition for involuntary hospitalization;

 

     (5)  Inserting a definition for "imminently dangerous to self or others";

 

     (6)  Repealing the authority of a law enforcement officer to take into custody and transport a person subject to an assisted community treatment order to any designated mental health program;

 

     (7)  Requiring a court order stating probable cause to believe a person is mentally ill or suffering from substance abuse, is imminently dangerous to self or others and in need of care or treatment, or both, to also direct the person to be taken into custody and, if subject to an assisted community treatment, transported to any designated mental health program;

 

     (8)  Inserting language that extends the maximum duration of assisted community treatment that may be ordered from one hundred eighty days to one year;

 

     (9)  Inserting language that amends the circumstances under which a subject of an assisted community treatment may be physically forced to take medication;

 

    (10) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

 

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

 

     To assist your Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means in their deliberation on this measure, your Committee notes the comments and concerns regarding the ninety day timeframe as used in the definition of "imminently dangerous to self or others" and that the defective effective date indicates that this measure requires further discussion.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2559, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2559, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Ways and Means and Judiciary and Labor.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health,

 

 

 

________________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair