Hawaii

HAWAII’S SUPPORT NETWORK

• Family Caregiver Support Program

Offers: Adult day, in-home, overnight and weekend/camp respite options, with a variable cap by county; other services include care management, homemaker/chore/personal care, transportation, assistive technology, supplies, education and training, emergency response, family consultations and meetings, home modification/repairs, information and assistance, legal and/or financial consultation, support groups and counseling.

Funded by: National Family Caregiver Support Program under Older Americans Act Title III E, state funds and voluntary contributions; administered by the Hawaii Executive Office on Aging and locally by area agencies on aging and contracted service providers.

Eligibility: Caregivers must be age 18 or older; care recipients must be age 60 and older. Care recipients must have impairment in two or more activities of daily living for respite/supplemental services and a diagnosis of dementia or related disorder and/or require supervision.

• Nursing Home Without Walls

Offers: Adult day, in-home, overnight and weekend/camp respite options, with no cap on services. Counseling services are also available.

Funded by: Medicaid home and community-based services waiver; administered at the state and local levels by the Hawaii Department of Human Services.

Eligibility: No minimum age for caregivers or care receivers; care receivers must meet nursing home level of care criteria.

• Kupuna Care

Offers: Adult day and in-home respite options with no cap on services; other services include care management, homemaker/chore/personal care, and transportation.

Funded by: State general funds and voluntary contributions; administered at the state level by the Hawaii Executive Office on Aging and locally by area agencies on aging.

Eligibility: Caregivers must be age 18 or older. Care recipients must be age 60 or older and have an impairment in at least two (or a combination of two) activities of daily living or instrumental activities of daily living, or have a substantive cognitive impairment.

• Grandparent and Other Relative Caregiver Support Programs

Offers: Respite care and other support services designed to address the needs of grandparent and other relative caregivers of children. See www.gu.org/factsheets.asp for details on Hawaii programs.

Funded by: Older Americans Act Title III E, state general revenues, and other sources. The Family Caregiver Support Program is administered by the Hawaii Executive Office on Aging and locally by area agencies on aging.

Eligibility: Grandparent and other relative caregivers must be a minimum of age 60 and caring for a child age 18 or younger to receive services in the Family Caregiver Support Program.

CONSUMER DIRECTION

Consumer direction is a philosophy that accommodates people’s needs and preferences by offering them maximum choice and control over services they use. Two Hawaii caregiver support programs offer some level of consumer direction.

• Family Caregiver Support Program offers caregivers a menu of services from which to choose; a voucher or budget for respite and/or supplemental services; direct payments to family members for the purchase of goods or services. Families have the choice of service providers.
• Nursing Home Without Walls offers families a choice of respite providers. Family members may be paid to provide personal care.

LEGISLATION

• SB 389 (Enacted 2003): Requires an employer who provides sick leave for employees, including the state and its political subdivisions, to permit employees to use accrued and available sick leave above the amount required under the temporary disability insurance law for family leave purposes.
• H.C.R. 95 (Adopted 2005): Urges the state to recognize the importance of the contributions of family caregivers and to support them to the extent possible in serving the longterm care needs of the state’s residents.
• H.C.R. 96 Urges the departments of Health and Human Services to develop methods to support family caregivers who provide at-home care to qualified relatives.

Sources: National Association of State Units on Aging, e-mail survey of State Family Caregiver Support Program contacts, Washington, D.C., June 2005; National Center on Grandparents Raising Grandchildren at Georgia State University, Research—Fact Sheets, Atlanta, Ga., 2005; Feinberg, Lynn Friss, et al., The State of the States in Family Caregiver Support: A 50-State Study, Washington, D.C.: Family Caregiver Alliance, National Center on Caregiving, 2004; Generations United, National Center on Grandparents and Other Relatives Raising Children, State Fact Sheets, Washington, D.C., October 2003; National Family Caregivers Association, Prevalence and Economic Value of Family Caregiving: State-by-State Analysis, Kensington, Md., 2000; U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000.

Contact