Bill Text: HI SR91 | 2020 | Regular Session | Introduced

---

Bill Title: Urging The Reduction Of Children's Exposure To Adverse Childhood Experiences By Investing In Preventive Health Care And Mental Health Wellness Interventions, Including Native Hawaiian Cultural Practices.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 6-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-03-16 - The hearing on this measure has been cancelled until further notice. [SR91 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2020-SR91-Introduced.html

---

THE SENATE	S.R. NO.	91
THIRTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2020
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE RESOLUTION

 

 

urging the reduction of children's exposure to adverse childhood experiences by investing in preventive health care and mental health wellness interventions, including Native Hawaiian cultural practices.

 

 

     WHEREAS, research over the last two decades in the evolving fields of neuroscience, molecular biology, public health, genomics, and epigenetics reveals that a person's experiences in the first few years of life can produce biological changes in the human body that, in turn, influence physical, mental, and spiritual health over the person's lifetime; and

 

WHEREAS, adverse childhood experiences are traumatic experiences that occur during childhood, including physical, emotional, or sexual abuse; physical or emotional neglect; and dysfunction among household members, ranging from substance abuse or untreated mental illness to incarceration, domestic violence, or separation or divorce; and these experiences can profoundly affect a child's developing brain and body and lead to poor health in adulthood; and

 

WHEREAS, the original 1998 Centers for Disease Control-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, which surveyed approximately seventeen thousand California-based adult members of the Kaiser Permanente health maintenance organization, found that two-thirds of survey participants had at least one adverse childhood experience and that one in six survey participants had four or more adverse childhood experiences; and

 

WHEREAS, the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study also found a strong correlation between the number of adverse childhood experiences and a person's risk for disease and negative health behaviors; and

WHEREAS, researchers found that a person having four or more adverse childhood experiences was 2.4 times more likely to suffer a stroke, 2.2 times more likely to have ischemic heart disease, twice as likely to have chronic pulmonary obstructive disease, 1.9 times more likely to have a type of cancer, and 1.7 times more likely to have diabetes; and

 

WHEREAS, researchers additionally found that a person having four or more adverse childhood experiences was 12.2 times more likely to attempt suicide, 10.3 times more likely to use injection drugs, and 7.4 times more likely to become alcoholic; and

 

WHEREAS, the life expectancy of a person having six or more adverse childhood experiences is twenty years shorter than that of a person having no adverse childhood experiences; and

 

WHEREAS, a child's early adverse experiences literally shape the physical architecture of the child's developing brain and establish either a sturdy or a fragile foundation for all subsequent learning, health, and behavior; and

 

WHEREAS, strong, frequent, or prolonged childhood stress caused by adverse experiences can become toxic stress that impacts the development of a child's fundamental brain architecture and stress response systems; and

 

WHEREAS, early childhood education offers a unique window of opportunity in which to prevent or heal the impacts of adverse childhood experiences and the resulting toxic stress on a child's brain, body, and spirit; and

 

WHEREAS, the emerging science and research on toxic stress caused by adverse childhood experiences highlight a growing public health crisis for the State, with implications for the State's educational, juvenile justice, criminal justice, and public health systems; and

 

WHEREAS, adverse childhood experiences can significantly impact a child's educational success; and

WHEREAS, the Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative, a nationally recognized collaboration between Massachusetts Advocates for Children and Harvard Law School, found that neurobiological, epigenetics, and physiological studies have shown that traumatic experiences in childhood and adolescence can diminish concentration, memory, and the organizational and language abilities that students need to succeed in school, thereby negatively impacting a student's academic performance, classroom behavior, and ability to form relationships; and

 

WHEREAS, a child having four or more adverse childhood experiences is forty-six times more likely to have learning or emotional problems; and

 

WHEREAS, a woman having seven or more adverse childhood experiences is 5.5 times more likely to become pregnant as a teenager; and

 

WHEREAS, adverse childhood experiences can affect a child's future contact with the criminal justice system; and

 

WHEREAS, a woman having three violent adverse childhood experiences is 3.5 times more likely to become the victim of intimate partner violence, while a man having three or more violent adverse childhood experiences is 3.8 times more likely to perpetuate intimate partner violence; and

 

WHEREAS, a critical factor in buffering children from the effects of toxic stress and adverse childhood experiences is the existence of supportive, stable relationships between children and their families, caregivers, and other important adults in their lives; and

 

WHEREAS, cultural practices that provide asset-based approaches involving the stabilizing influence of an unrelated adult can provide a child with the resilience needed to mitigate a high number of adverse childhood experiences; and

 

WHEREAS, positively influencing the architecture of a child's developing brain is more effective and less costly than attempting to address a child's poor learning, health, and behaviors later in life; now, therefore,

     BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirtieth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2020, that the Governor is urged to help reduce children's exposure to adverse childhood experiences, help address the impacts of those experiences, and invest in preventive health care and mental health wellness interventions, including Native Hawaiian cultural practices; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the applicable executive branch agencies are urged to consider the principles of brain development; the intimate connection between mental, physical, and spiritual health; the concepts of toxic stress, adverse childhood experiences, and buffering relationships; and the value of early interventions, culture, and āina-based programs as important strategies to prevent and mitigate adverse childhood experiences; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that programs of the applicable executive branch agencies are urged to acknowledge the principles of early childhood and youth brain development and to integrate into programming, services, and professional development, to the extent possible, the concepts of connection to land; cultural and historical trauma; early adversity, toxic stress, childhood trauma, and resilience gained through protective relationships; and the fact that Native Hawaiian and other indigenous cultural practices provide a strength- and asset-based approach, in order to build community wellness and maximize children's resilience; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, Director of Health, and Director of Human Services.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title: 

Childhood Wellness and Resilience; Native Hawaiian Cultural Practices