Report Title:

Caregiver Support Services

Description:

Requires department of health to provide caregiver support services. Specifies services that may be included.

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

562

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2005

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

Relating to caregiver support services.

 

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

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that families, not 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 was providing care or assistance to a person age sixty or older. Of these caregivers, twenty nine per cent were caring for a spouse or partner, and twenty one per cent were caring for a parent.

Based on estimates of Hawaii's caregivers, it is established that persons in different demographic groups and with varied socioeconomic characteristics exhibit similar chances of being caregivers. Additionally, Hawaii caregivers are remarkably similar to their non-caregiving counterparts in terms of age, ethnicity, education, income, household size, health, and other characteristics.

The need for personal care due to physical sensory, cognitive, and self-care disabilities increases with age. By 2020, more than one in four individuals will be sixty years old or older. 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.

As long-term care costs continue to rise, it is in the interest of the State to devise mechanisms to assist family caregivers and to keep Hawaii's elderly off medicaid and out of costly institutional care. Families are an important part of the solution to serious long-term care system problems, such as budget and workforce shortages, and can relieve state spending on nursing home care.

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 over 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 replace community resources and that is capable of supporting 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, outreach, and training about caregiving;

(3) Home-delivered meals;

(4) Transportation services;

(5) Bathing and personal care services;

(6) Rehabilitation services;

(7) Health maintenance;

(8) Homemaker and chore services;

(9) Adult daycare and adult day health services;

(10) Respite care;

(11) Care plan services;

(12) Senior companion services;

(13) Systems development;

(14) Coalition building; and

(15) Research and data collection.

SECTION 3. New statutory material is underscored.

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

INTRODUCED BY:

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