Report Title:

Caregiver Coordinator Position

Description:

Establishes a caregiver coordinator position in the executive office on aging. (SB561 SD1 HD1)

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

561

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2005

S.D. 1

STATE OF HAWAII

H.D. 1


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

Relating to caregiver coordinator position.

 

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

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that families, rather than institutions, are the primary providers of long-term care for older adults in the State. In 2003, approximately twenty-one per cent of Hawaii's adult population were providing care or assistance to a person age sixty or older, with twenty-nine per cent caring for a spouse or partner, and twenty-one per cent caring for a parent. Caregivers are motivated to provide care to family members because of their values, the preference of the elderly to remain at home with their families, and the high cost of institutional long-term care.

In Hawaii, the likelihood of becoming a caregiver is similar across different demographic groups and among persons with varied socioeconomic characteristics. Adults of any household income have a similar likelihood of providing care to an elderly person. Married persons in Hawaii are just as likely to provide care to an older adult as their unmarried counterparts.

Among the different ethnic groups in Hawaii, native Hawaiians are most likely to provide regular care to an older adult, followed by Filipinos, Japanese, and Caucasians. Twelve per cent of men and sixteen per cent of women provide care or assistance to someone age sixty or older. Women, however, are more likely than men to be primary caregivers, providing higher intensities and frequencies of care, according to national studies.

Sixty-five per cent of Hawaii's caregivers are employed. To balance their employment and eldercare roles, working caregivers take leaves of absence, report to work late or leave early, change from full-time to part-time employment, change to less demanding jobs, retire early, or give up work completely. As a consequence, caregiving may reduce a caregiver's retirement income since reduced hours on the job or fewer years in the workforce may mean fewer contributions to pensions, social security, and other retirement savings.

By 2020, more than one in four individuals will be sixty years old or older. The need for personal care due to physical, sensory, cognitive, and self-care disabilities increases with age. As Hawaii's population ages, many more families will be providing higher levels of long-term care to frail and disabled older adults at home.

The purpose of this Act is to coordinate and develop family caregiver support services statewide by authorizing the executive office on aging to establish a family caregiver services coordinator.

SECTION 2. There is established within the executive office on aging one temporary program specialist in aging position. The program specialist in aging shall coordinate a statewide system of caregiver support services by:

(1) Analyzing the long-term care needs of older adults and the capacity of family and informal caregivers to help them remain safely at home;

(2) Advocating, mobilizing, and coordinating employer and community resources to enable and augment family caregiver support;

(3) Establishing and maintaining protocols and standards for federal and state caregiver services administered by state, county, or other local agencies on aging;

(4) Establishing and supervising the alignment of long-term care advocacy assistance staff caregiver support objectives with the planning, resource development, grants management, data management, and evaluation functions of the executive office on aging; and

(5) Coordinating statewide support for grandparents and other aging relative caregivers of children eighteen and under.

SECTION 3. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $1 or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2005-2006 and the same sum, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2006-2007 to establish one temporary program specialist in aging position in the executive office on aging.

The sums appropriated shall be expended by the executive office on aging for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 4. The temporary program specialist in aging position in the executive office on aging shall cease to exist on June 30, 2007.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2005.