Receiving mental health services at Kaiser can be a significant struggle. Due to chronic short staffing, wait times for patient appointments can stretch to three months! Ironically, even Kaiser employees face these long waits. Kaiser has increasingly encouraged group therapy while patients await their one-on-one appointments, or they outsource patients to other providers when they need consistent therapy. These may seem like helpful options, but they often feel more like a workaround for inadequate staffing rather than a true solution. Unfortunately, because of this, many who need immediate mental support ultimately give up waiting and turn to costly outside therapy options.
But things don’t have to be this way! In Southern California, over 2,400 Kaiser Permanente behavioral health workers are fighting back and may potentially go on strike starting October 21st. They are advocating for better staffing, more break time, improved wages, and pensions. Their demands are similar to those of mental health workers in Northern California, who struck last year—even though Kaiser has still fallen short on fulfilling its part of the agreement.
Patients deserve health care options centered on their needs, not on Kaiser’s profits, and Kaiser mental health workers are showing the way!
Click here to read the article printed in the 10-16-24 Healthcare Newsletter
