4,000 mental health clinicians planning to strike at 100 Kaiser facilities
The union representing roughly 4,000 wiser behavioral health specialists – psychologists, social workers, therapists and other professionals – announced Wednesday they will hold a five-day strike in November at Kaiser Permanente facilities around California.
The National Union of Healthcare Workers said the walkout would occur Nov. 11-15 at more than 100 facilities.
“We’re fighting to end a double standard,” said Kaiser social worker Elizabeth White, in a news release from the union. “We know the medical care we receive as Kaiser patients is much better than the care we can provide as mental health therapists, and we won’t accept second-class status for our patients or ourselves.”
Kaiser Vice President John Nelson said the company had not yet received a strike notice but was disappointed in the union’s strike vote.
“This strike threat does not make sense, given where we are in terms of advancing care, offering generous wages and benefits, and investing in expanding the mental health workforce,” Nelson said. “It is disheartening that union leadership would be so willing to sacrifice the needs of our patients, just to use them as contract bargaining chips.”
Kaiser has said that it has made an offer to the union that would provide immediate relief from staffing shortages and constraints in appointments. The union rejected that offer in July, saying it would not alleviate wait times for return visits.
Kaiser said it was undertaking efforts to:
▪ Focus the staff and resources of a temporary agency on crisis intake, including psychiatric nurses who would do triage.
▪ Review all service locations to determine whether scheduling guidelines are being met.
▪ Expand the number of recruiters trying to fill positions for mental health and wellness job openings.
▪ Schedule on-call staff for emergency rooms.
▪ Provide more staff to handle scheduling to reduce the time therapists spend on this work.
▪ Evaluate retention and turnover data, especially as it relates to attrition over the last two years.
The union held a five-day strike in December 2018 over what it described as chronic understaffing that is limiting patient access to mental health services at the nation’s largest managed care organization. Union members had approved an indefinite strike that was set to start in June but acceded to legislative leaders’ pleas to call it off and continue negotiating.
Elk Grove psychologist Kenneth Rogers, an NUHW union representative, has told The Bee that progress has been made in talks but that he and other behavioral health specialists feel their employer is not doing enough to improve patient care issues.
Kaiser mental health clinicians filed a whistleblower complaint almost a decade ago, asking state regulators to make Kaiser treat behavioral health patients in a more timely fashion. It ended with Kaiser having to pay a $4 million state fine and agreeing to ongoing state-ordered outside monitoring of its mental health program.
Social worker Clement Papazian, who works in Oakland, said: “We won’t let Kaiser get away with half-measures and empty promises that will still leave our patients waiting far too long to see their therapists. It’s inexcusable that Kaiser clinicians have to apologize to our patients every day for the lack of care Kaiser provides.”
This story was originally published October 23, 2019 at 11:52 AM.
