More than 2,000 Kaiser Permanente mental health workers went on strike on Thursday after demanding more staffing and better access to care for patients who have had to wait months for treatment appointments. It’s been a month.

In a statement, the National Federation of Health Professionals said in Wednesday night’s negotiations, Kaiser refused to consider their proposal to improve conditions for health care workers and patients.

“It’s very frustrating when you’re on the front lines of a mental health crisis and your employer is in complete denial about it,” says Matt, a psychologist at Kaiser in South San Francisco and a member of the union’s bargaining board. “Kaiser officials have once again demonstrated a lack of interest in providing timely mental health care that complies with state law or meets patients’ needs,” Hannon said.

The NUHW has suggested that Kaiser consider hiring more people to alleviate an “unsustainable” workload that unions say has led to high turnover rates among HMO mental health care workers. rice field.

Among the proposals rejected Wednesday night were worker requests for more time to see returning patients and requests for therapists to offer follow-up appointments as often as required by state law. , which included capping the number of cases.

The Mental Health Equality Act, Senate Bill 221, went into effect in July, requiring health insurers to offer follow-up appointments for mental health and substance use patients within 10 days of their previous session.

The American Psychological Association recommends weekly treatment for people with depression. That’s twice as many people who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

This month-long strike is about patient care. Kaiser’s therapists want the organization to provide the same level of care for mental health as medical services, according to a NUHW statement.

Impressive therapists miss multiple paychecks because they hold their terms so tightly.

Kimberly Hollingsworth-Horner, Kaiser’s therapist in Fresno, said, “Kaiser stopped risking their patients’ lives and worked with therapists to create a system that gives them the care they need to get better. Until then, we will continue our strike.

Hollingsworth Horner, who is also a member of the negotiating committee, said it was “hard” to go without pay for a month, but compared to the months of waiting between treatment sessions that patients have endured for years. He said, “Nothing.”

California fined Kaiser $4 million in 2013 for delays and denials of mental health care, but mental health care waiting times have not improved.

In its fact sheet on the strike, NUHW said Kaiser was unable to increase its workforce despite a surge in demand for mental health care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In fact, Kaiser seems to be a bleeding clinician. Between June 2021 and May 2022, he left 377 people in the Northern California area, according to the union. More than 660 people left the company.

In a NUHW survey of more than 200 retiring clinicians, 80% felt their workload was unsustainable and 70% said they were “in line with standard of care and medical need.” He said he was unable to “treat the patient.”

Instead of quitting, picketline clinicians are working to change how Kaiser’s mental health department is managed.

Melody Bumgardner, a psychologist who works at the Kaiser Santa Clara and Campbell satellites, has worked at Kaiser for 22 years, and although the organization’s working conditions were good during the first decade she worked there, conditions and turnover have deteriorated in recent years. He said he was.

“When I first started working here, we were well staffed,” Bum Gardner said Thursday at the picket line outside Kaiser San Jose. People wanted to work here, people stayed for a long time, but in the last ten years the majority of people who started working here have usually been here for three or five years. I quit before the year.”

Bumgardner has stayed with the company longer because she works with the “diverse population” of patients she sees and because she values ​​the relationships she’s built with her colleagues over the past two decades. wants to see real change as it uses its “huge resources” to provide timely mental health services to its members.

“We are standing up for Kaiser with this strike and standing up for patients who have been denied proper mental health care for too long,” said Jeffrey Chen, a licensed clinical social worker at Kaiser in San Francisco. Harding said.

Despite Wednesday’s stalemate, Kaiser has refused to schedule an additional negotiating session with the union and there are no further negotiations currently scheduled. could not comment on the negotiations.