HI SCR50

Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs directed to convene a task force to study granting prescriptive authority to qualified psychologists in Hawaiʻi, Maui, and Kauaʻi counties.

Task force to provide findings and recommendations, including proposed legislation, to the Legislature no later than twenty days before the 2022 Regular Session convenes.

Clinical psychologists have an average of seven years of post-baccalaureate study and three thousand hours of supervised practice; the American Psychological Association has developed a model curriculum for psychopharmacology training for prescribing psychologists.

Addresses critical shortage of prescribing mental health care providers in rural and medically underserved communities, where suicide is the leading injury-related cause of death among Hawaiʻi residents.

Task force to be dissolved on June 30, 2022, with the Board of Psychology providing assistance to the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.