Bill Text: HI HB2405 | 2024 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Relating To Peer Support Specialists.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2024-02-12 - Passed Second Reading as amended in HD 1 and referred to the committee(s) on FIN with none voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and Representative(s) Amato, Lowen, Nakashima, Quinlan, Todd excused (5). [HB2405 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2024-HB2405-Amended.html
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
H.B. NO. |
2405 |
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THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2024 |
H.D. 1 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
RELATING TO PEER SUPPORT SPECIALISTS.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
The legislature further
finds that the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration identifies peer support as one of the six guiding principles of
trauma-informed care. Peer support
specialists use strengths-based approaches that emphasize physical, psychological,
and emotional safety and create opportunities to rebuild a sense of control and
empowerment.
The legislature also finds that research shows that peer support
is effective for improving behavioral health outcomes. Benefits of peer support
include reduced hospital admission rates, longer community tenure, increased
social support and social functioning, decreased substance use and depression,
raised empowerment scores, and increased engagement in self-care and wellness. Peer support provides benefits not only to
individuals suffering from mental health disorders and substance use disorders,
but also to individuals who are experiencing homelessness, involved in the
child welfare system, survivors and responders of disasters, involved in the
correctional and juvenile justice systems, and caregivers of youth involved in
one or more child-serving systems.
The legislature additionally finds that Act 291, Session Laws of
Hawaii 2022, established on a temporary basis the office of wellness and
resilience within the office of the governor. The office was established to address the
various barriers that impact the physical, social, and emotional well-being of
all people in the State by building wellness and resilience through
trauma-informed, strength-based strategies; and to support department and agencies
in their individual efforts to address trauma-informed care and move toward a
collaborative, shared purpose of collective system reform.
The legislature finds that by establishing a working group within
the office of wellness and resilience that comprises state departments and
agencies that engage with peer support specialists, community-based
organizations, contracted service providers, adults, youth, parents, and
caregivers with lived experiences, the working group will contribute to the
development of a framework to elevate the role of peer support specialists and
enhance their ability to serve individuals in need.
The purpose of this Act is to establish a working group to
develop and make recommendations for a framework for peer support specialists
in the State.
SECTION 2. (a) There is established within the office of
wellness and resilience for administrative purposes a peer support specialist
working group. The working group shall
consist of the following members:
(1) The director of the office of wellness and resilience, or the director's designee, who shall serve as the chairperson of the working group;
(2) The director of health, or the director's designee;
(3) The superintendent of
education, or the superintendent's designee;
(4) The director of corrections
and rehabilitation, or the director's
designee;
(5) A member of the Hawaii
state judiciary, to be appointed by the chief justice;
(6) A member of the
department of health's adult mental health
division representing the administrator of the Hawaii certified peer specialist
program;
(7) A member of the
department of health's child and adolescent
mental health division representing the administrator of the peer support
specialist program carried out within the division;
(8) The administrator of
med-QUEST, or the administrator's designee;
(9) The governor's coordinator on homelessness, or the coordinator's designee;
(10) Two members of the
nonprofit sector, who shall be invited by the chairperson; and
(11) A member from each of the following constituencies, whom the chairperson shall invite to participate in the working group;
(A) An individual with lived experience as a child or youth in the child welfare system;
(B) An individual with lived experience in the juvenile justice system
or an individual with lived experience in the adult correctional system;
(C) Two caregivers
with lived experience as the caregiver of a child or youth in behavioral health,
child welfare, and the juvenile justice systems;
(D) An individual
with lived experience with recovery from substance abuse and lived experience
being homeless; and
(E) An individual with lived experience navigating the mental health system either as a child or youth or as an adult.
(b) The working group shall develop and make recommendations for a framework for peer support specialists in the State. The working group shall:
(1) Identify best practices and create, develop, and adopt a statewide framework for peer support specialists. The framework shall include:
(A) Clear roles and definitions of peer support specialists, youth peer support specialists, adult peer support specialists, and caregiver peer support specialists;
(B) Ethics, values, and standards required of peer support specialists;
(C) Recommendations
on whether the State should require youth peer support specialists, adult peer
support specialists, and caregiver peer support specialists to undertake the
same training, certification, and credentialing process or whether the training
should be individualized based on the type of peer support;
(D) Recommendations
on how to require peer support specialists in state-awarded contracts; and
(E) An implementation and quality improvement plan, consisting of an evaluation plan with coordinated data collection and suggested metrics for assessing ongoing progress of the framework;
(2) Identify a trauma-informed model of supervision of peer support specialists to support competent and ethical delivery of services that support continued development of peer support specialist abilities and support navigation of state systems, including the certification and credentialing process, integration in decision making and program development processes, debriefing from meetings, training and technical assistance, and programs to support the well-being of peer support specialists;
(3) Provide an inventory of current use of peer support specialists
within and across public and private agencies and departments; and
(4) Develop a sustainability plan that includes identification of state and federal funding streams to incorporate requirements to establish peer support as a medicaid billable service.
(c) Members of the peer support specialist working group who are employed by the State and serving in that official capacity on the working group shall serve without compensation but shall be reimbursed for reasonable expenses necessary for the performance of their duties, including travel expenses. Other members of the working group not employed by the State shall receive compensation for time spent on working group meetings and related work and travel expenses.
(d) The office of wellness and resilience may
contract with an administrative facilitator to provide necessary support for
the peer support specialist working group in carrying out its duties.
(e) The peer support
specialist working group shall submit a report of its findings and
recommendations, including any proposed legislation, to the legislature no
later than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular session of 2025.
(f) The peer support
specialist working group shall cease to exist on June 30, 2025.
SECTION 3. There is appropriated out of the general
revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $66,400 or so much thereof as may be
necessary for fiscal year 2024-2025 for the peer support specialist working group
established pursuant to this Act, including for the office of wellness and
resilience to contract with an administrative facilitator to provide necessary
support for the working group in carrying out its duties.
The sum appropriated shall be expended by the office of the
governor for the purposes of this Act.
SECTION 4. In accordance with section 9 of article VII of the Hawaii State Constitution and sections 37‑91 and 37‑93, Hawaii Revised Statutes, the legislature has determined that the appropriations contained in H.B. No. , will cause the state general fund expenditure ceiling for fiscal year 2024‑2025 to be exceeded by $ or per cent. In addition, the appropriation contained in this Act will cause the general fund expenditure ceiling for fiscal year 2024‑2025 to be further exceeded by $ or per cent. The combined total amount of general fund appropriations contained in only these two Acts will cause the state general fund expenditure ceiling for fiscal year 2024‑2025 to be exceeded by $ or per cent. The reasons for exceeding the general fund expenditure ceiling are that:
(1) The appropriation made in this Act is necessary to serve the public interest; and
(2) The appropriation made in this Act meets the needs addressed by this Act.
SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 3000.
Report Title:
Peer Support Specialist; Working Group; Office of Wellness and Resilience; Appropriation; Expenditure Ceiling
Description:
Establishes a working group within the Office of Wellness and Resilience to create a statewide framework for peer support specialists. Appropriates funds for hiring an administrative facilitator to provide necessary support for the peer support specialist working group. Effective 7/1/3000. (HD1)
The summary description
of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is
not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.
