[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 148 (Wednesday, August 2, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39409-39410]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-18880]



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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration


Cooperative Agreement With the State of Hawaii

AGENCY: Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, Substance Abuse and 
Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), HHS.

ACTION: Notice of planned cooperative agreement award to the State of 
Hawaii to serve a rural area in the Hawaiian Islands with a focus on 
substance abuse among Native Hawaiians and other residents of rural 
Hawaii.

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SUMMARY: The Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), SAMHSA, is 
publishing this notice to provide information to the public of a 
planned single source cooperative agreement award to the State of 
Hawaii for the development and evaluation of systems of substance abuse 
and/or dependence intervention, treatment and recovery 

[[Page 39410]]
services among rural Native Hawaiians. Other residents of rural Hawaii 
residing in the particular services area may also be provided services. 
The anticipated project period is three years and the estimated FY 1995 
award is $500,000. An award will be made based on an acceptable 
application that is approved by a peer review committee and the CSAT 
National Advisory Council.

AUTHORITY/JUSTIFICATION: A cooperative agreement award will be made 
under the authority of section 510(b)(1) of the Public Health Service 
(PHS) Act, as amended (42 U.S.C. 290bb-3).
    The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance number for this program 
is 93.122.
    The State of Hawaii has been selected for an award because of the 
special substance abuse problems of Native Hawaiians. Hawaii also has 
the highest percentage of chronic drinkers in the Nation. Among Native 
Hawaiians who self reported drinking patterns from the age of 18 to 34, 
90 percent of males and 67 percent of females identified themselves as 
heavy drinkers and/or substance abuse users. Almost one-fifth of the 
adult drinking population meet the screening criteria for alcoholism 
and over 10 percent of pregnant women tested in a four-month period had 
positive drug urine results at the time of delivery.
    In addition, rural remote areas of Hawaii, such as the Neighbor 
Islands of Kauai, Maui, Molokai, Lanai and the Big Island of Hawaii, 
are very isolated and have limited substance abuse treatment and 
related services. Lack of transportation and communication are common 
problems, thus, access to the very limited substance abuse and related 
health care services is difficult, if not impossible.
    The availability of treatment services for Native Hawaiians and 
other neighboring residents of rural areas is inadequate to meet the 
extensive needs for treatment and related services. For example, there 
are only 32 licensed residential treatment beds in Maui, 30 on the Big 
Island and 6 on Kauai. None exist on Lanai or Molokai. The Neighbor 
Islands have virtually no methadone services, either for methadone 
detoxification or maintenance. The Big Island has just begun to provide 
methadone maintenance to 30 of those in need. Three hundred and fifteen 
individuals are currently on the Big Island waiting list for these 
services. In view of these considerations and in order to assure that 
specific attention is focused on rural Native Hawaiians and their 
neighbors, it has been determined that $500,000 should be reserved for 
the exclusive purpose of providing services to this population in need.
    The proposed project will focus on improving the availability and 
accessibility of substance abuse treatment services for Native 
Hawaiians and other neighboring residents of rural Hawaii. No non-
native Hawaiian residing in the service area will be denied services 
based on their status as non-native Hawaiians. Further, the required 
evaluation component of the program will provide information useful in 
the future design of rural substance abuse treatment programs.
    Since the only sizable number of Native Hawaiians are found in 
Hawaii, and consistent with CSAT's goals to coordinate Federal, State 
and local treatment planning and coordination provision of other health 
care services, and data collection efforts, and to work in partnership 
with the single State agencies (SSAs) to administer discretionary funds 
to the maximum extent practical, eligibility is being limited to the 
State of Hawaii. The Hawaii Department of Health, as the SSA for 
alcohol and drug abuse, is uniquely qualified to carry out the proposed 
project because it has mechanisms in place for securing pertinent 
information from public and private nonprofit agencies for service 
planning, management, evaluation and data collection. It also has the 
unique ability to coordinate health services, oversight and maximize 
the long-term benefit of the award. It is anticipated that the high 
degree of interdisciplinary State involvement will facilitate planning 
and integration of services, as well as State support of systemic 
improvements after Federal support is no longer available.
    The cooperative agreement mechanism is being used for this award in 
order to facilitate the coordination of this project with the five 
projects funded under this program in September 1993, as well as with 
other SAMHSA, PHS, HHS, and Departments of Justice, Housing and Labor 
programs.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Clifton D. Mitchell, CSAT/SAMHSA, 
Rockwall II, Room 740, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857; 
telephone (301) 443-8802.

    Dated: July 26, 1995.
Richard Kopanda,
Acting Executive Officer, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services 
Administration.
[FR Doc. 95-18880 Filed 8-1-95; 8:45 am]
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