Overview: Thousands of mental health workers from the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) have launched an open-ended strike, demanding that Kaiser address the mental health crisis and shortage of mental health professionals. The strike follows the failure of Kaiser and the union to reach an agreement on contract proposals. The NUHW accuses Kaiser of creating a two-tiered mental health system where patients in Northern California have better access to care and mental health professionals have more time to meet the needs of their patients. The strike could last for weeks, as it did in 2022, when mental health therapists in Northern California striked for 10 weeks.Breanna Reeves
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Thousands of Kaiser Permanente mental health workers launched an open-ended strike on Monday, demanding that Kaiser address the mental health crisis and shortage of mental health professionals.More than 2,400 mental health therapists, psychologists, social workers and psychiatric nurses who are represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) made the decision to strike after Kaiser and the union failed to come to an agreement on contract proposals. The NUHW contract expired on Oct. 30. According to the NUHW, Kaiser staffs an estimated one therapist for every 3,000 members in Southern California compared to one therapist for every 2,000 members in Northern California. “However, Kaiser management has refused to extend those gains to Southern California, creating in essence a two-tiered mental health system where patients in Northern California have better access to care and mental health professionals have more time to meet the needs of their patients,” read a statement from the NUHW released on Monday.The NUHW stated their demands in the press release, requesting an increase in patient care time, raises for cost of living, and restoring pensions for mental health professionals hired after 2014.Kaiser released a statement following the launch of the strike and accused the NUHW of “slow-walking the negotiation process.”“Today’s strike is entirely unnecessary, and unfortunately not surprising. NUHW leaders have been threatening to strike since before we began bargaining in July,” the Kaiser statement read. “The union isn’t calling for more time to care for patients. It is demanding more money for therapists to spend less time seeing patients.”The union addressed Kaiser’s claim that increasing patient care time could result in a full-time therapist spending 40% of their work week not seeing patients, calling it “false” as therapists in Northern California are afforded seven hours per week and “that has not been the case in Southern California.”Roughly 2,400 Kaiser Permanente mental health care workers launched an open-ended strike on Oct. 21 after the union and Kaiser failed to come to an agreement regarding contract proposals that would address staff shortages and patient care times. (Image courtesy of NUHW/ Facebook)“Everything we’re proposing in negotiations, Kaiser is already providing to the vast majority of its workforce,” said Adriana Webb, a medical social worker with Kaiser who specializes in serving patients with HIV, in the NUHW statement. “If Kaiser is serious about transforming its mental health care system, it has to start by ending the inequities that harm us and our patients.”The open-ended strike could last for weeks, as it did in 2022, when mental health therapists in Northern California striked for 10 weeks. The monthslong strike resulted in Kaiser increasing staffing and extending time for patient care duties such as responding to patient calls and developing treatment plans.According to the NUHW picket schedule, strikes will take place across dozens of Kaiser hospital locations, from Bakersfield to Downey to Riverside and Fontana, down to San Diego. In previous years, Kaiser has been fined for its failure to provide patients with timely access to care and last year, they were fined $50 million — the largest fine in California history for violating mental health laws. According to the settlement agreement, Kaiser acknowledged “that it lacks sufficient behavioral health providers in its Medical Groups and external contracted provider networks.”A 4 page letter announcing plans for a open ended strike by the National Union of Healthcare Workers written by NUHW Research Director Fred Seavey. (Courtesy of the National Union of Healthcare Workers)“In an effort to address the deficiencies identified herein, the Plan represented to the Department that it has made significant strides and improvements in expanding its behavioral health network. Nevertheless, this is an area that requires significant review and continued improvement,” according to the agreement.“Kaiser says all the right things when it comes to mental health care, but its actions tell a different story,” stated Josh Garcia, a psychologist for Kaiser in San Diego, in the press release.. “Unless we strike, our coworkers are going to keep leaving and our patients are going to keep struggling in an underfunded, understaffed system that doesn’t meet their needs.”While the strike continues, Kaiser stated that they have “comprehensive plans in place to minimize potential disruptions.” Kaiser noted that roughly 60% of our patients who are receiving mental health and addiction medicine services currently receive their care from external providers who are not participating in the strike. Kaiser accused NUHW of “putting pickets before patients.”Prior to the strike, the union penned a letter to the head of California’s Department of Managed Health Care, urging them to monitor Kaiser and ensure they follow state law to avoid what happened in 2022 when Kaiser “illegally canceled” more than 111,000 individual and group therapy appointments during the 10-week strike by Northern California therapists. Black Voice News will continue to follow this story.
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Source: Black Voice News
