STAND. COM. REP. NO. 220

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2001

RE: S.B. No. 1125

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 1125 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ADVANCE DIRECTIVES FOR PSYCHIATRIC CARE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to establish a mechanism to allow individuals to make known their mental health treatment preferences at a time when the individual is able to make informed decisions about treatment.

Your Committee received testimony in favor of this measure from the Department of Health, Nami Oahu: Oahu's Voice on Mental Illness, Hawaii Biodyne, Inc., Hawaii Nurses' Association, Hawaii Medical Service Association, the Mental Health Association in Hawaii, the Hawaii Psychological Association, and three individuals. Your Committee received testimony opposing this measure from the Hawaii Disability Rights Center and the Hawaii Psychiatric Medical Association.

Your Committee finds that existing law is insufficient in providing basic protections for persons with mental illnesses to determine their own care and treatment as in other states or as recommended by nationally recognized mental health advocacy agencies. Basic protections include the opportunity to name an attorney-in-fact and the need for the document to be notarized in addition to witnesses to avoid coercion or undue influence to file an advance directive.

Your Committee adopted the recommendation of the Hawaii Nurses' Association by eliminating the section on statutory damages, since health care providers' encouragement of their patients to sign an advance directive for psychiatric care could later be misinterpreted as coercion, particularly if they are in a psychotic state.

Your Committee has also amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments to this measure for clarity.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health and Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1125, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1125, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.

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

____________________________

DAVID MATSUURA, Chair