Governor of Hawaiʻi signs executive order declaring it a trauma-informed state

CATEGORY: GOVERNMENT PROJECTS: STATE

Josh Green, Governor of Hawaiʻi

Source: KITV News
Read time: 1.3 minutes
 
This Happened
Governor Josh Green signed Executive Order 24-01 on 2/20/24 to make Hawaiʻi a "trauma-informed state." This makes at least the seventh state to promote trauma-informed approaches across all state departments following Alaska, California, Delaware, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
 
Who Did This?
Green, a Democrat, worked as a family practice and emergency room physician before becoming Lieutenant Governor of Hawaiʻi in 2018 and Governor in 2022.
During the COVID pandemic, Green stated that protestors against the vaccine were “people who don’t believe in science.” He said he was a lightning rod for protestors because he was outspoken in support for the vaccine and he was “a voice of reason on behalf of science.”

The Claim
The executive order claims that Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) studies have shown that ACEs cause problems with a person’s “health, opportunities, and stability throughout their lifetime.” By implementing a variety of so-called trauma-informed approaches, this will lead to better self-care, wellness, and resilience for state employees and communities.
 
Analysis
In 2021, a Trauma-Informed Care Task Force was created in Hawaiʻi. In 2022, the Office of Wellness and Resilience was created. Tia Hartsock, who holds a masters in social work, was appointed the first Director of the Office in December 2022. These efforts led to the governor’s Executive Order 24-01. All executive state departments now fall under the purview of the Office of Wellness and Resilience.  They must move towards becoming trauma-informed with activities and goals that are to be determined.
 
Each department must identify a Trauma-Informed Care Liaison. Additional activities may include administering surveys to employees about stress and health, trainings to educate staff on how ACEs causes health problems, teaching self-care to staff, and recommending new laws and policies for citizens.
 
There were few details in the executive order, but it did include one rather specific mandate: All state departments must use “trauma-responsive language that supports reducing the impacts of adverse events without re-traumatization in requests for proposals and in-service contracts with providers.”
 
It is unlikely that any meaningful outcomes will be achieved because the premise of ACEs as a causal agent of health problems has never been proven. Since Dr. Vincent Felitti’s initial 1998 ACE study, one hundred percent of the ACE studies have been cross-sectional studies, which have zero power to make causal conclusions. The relationship between adversity and health problems is far more complex than the simplistic ACE narrative. Also, there is no good evidence that implementation of a trauma-informed culture prevents ACEs, reduces stress, or improves meaningful outcomes.
 
Why Did This Happen?
Despite the lack of research evidence, these trauma-informed projects provide a strong sense for its supporters of doing something for the ills of societies. The advantages for politicians include that this provides another avenue for expansion of bureaucracy and for the administrative state to rule by science, and they get to decide what the science is.


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