Hawai'i Gov. David Ige signed legislation to establish the state's first Office of Wellness & Resilience. Senate Bill 2482 (SD1 HD1 CD1, relating to wellness) was signed into law by Ige on July 12, 2022. It will now be known as Act 291.

The Senate version of the bill was introduced by state Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz and supported by the state Departments of Health and Human Services, as well as more than 30 Hawai‘i child and family-serving organizations who provided testimony around the need for a statewide response to prioritize wellness and build resilience in all communities in Hawai`i.

The Office of Wellness & Resilience will:

• Identify unmet need and challenges encountered by the departments, and those they serve, related to health disparities and trauma-informed care implementation and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic;
• Seek federal funding solutions and evaluate state funding priorities relating to trauma and trauma-informed care;
• Establish a procurement team to streamline existing department grants and funding management related to social determinants of health and trauma-informed care initiatives;
• Create a social determinants of health electronic dashboard to identify baseline needs that impede quality-of-life outcomes;
• Interact with community agencies, organizations and other stakeholders to ensure needs and wellness requirements of communities are met throughout the state; and
• Address and implement solutions recommended by the Act 209 Trauma-Informed Care Task Force.
  
  

The introduction to the legislation says:

The legislature finds that research conducted over the last two decades in the fields of neuroscience, molecular biology, public health, genomics, and epigenetics reveal that experiences in the first few years of life build changes into the biology of the human body that, in turn, influence a person's lifelong physical, mental, and spiritual health. Adverse childhood experiences are traumatic experiences that occur during childhood, including phySical, emotional, or sexual abuse; untreated mental illness; incarceration of a
household member; domestic violence; and separation or divorce involving household members. These experiences can have a profound effect on a child's developing brain and body and, if not treated properly, can increase a person's risk for disease and other health conditions through adulthood.

The legislature further finds that early adverse childhood experiences shape the physical architecture of a child's developing brain and can prevent the development of a sturdy foundation for learning, quality health, and positive behavior.

Strong, frequent, or prolonged stress in childhood caused by adverse childhood experiences can become toxic stress, impacting the development of a child's fundamental brain architecture and stress response systems. Early childhood education offers a unique window of opportunity to prevent and heal the impacts of adverse childhood experiences and toxic stress on a child's
brain, body, and spirit. Research on toxic stress and adverse childhood experiences indicates the existence of a growing public health crisis for the State with implications for Hawai'i's educational, juvenile justice, criminal justice, and public health systems.

The legislature also finds that neurobiological, epigenetic, and physiological studies have shown that traumatic experiences in childhood and adolescence can diminish concentration, memory, and the organizational language abilities
students need to succeed in school, thereby negatively impacting a student's academic performance, classroom behavior, and the ability to form relationships. 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. Cultural practices that provide asset—based approaches involving the influence of a stable non-relative adult can provide the resilience needed to mitigate the effects on a child who has had high adverse childhood experiences. Positively influencing the architecture of a child's developing brain is more effective and less costly than attempting to correct poor learning, health, and behaviors later in life.