Kaiser Permanente mental health workers, represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), have gone on strike, demanding a new contract with improved working conditions and benefits. Despite the strike, Kaiser Permanente assures patients that they can still access essential mental health care services.
Kaiser Permanente employees picket outside Kaiser Permanente La Mesa on Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023 in La Mesa, CA. As therapists at Kaiser Permanente, my colleagues and I come to work each day with a clear purpose: to provide exceptional mental health care to our patients. Although the work can be demanding, we are united by our dedication to supporting our members and their overall well-being.
As you are well aware, there is a mental health crisis in America, and demand for the excellent care that we continue to provide is soaring. We believe that everyone should be able to access quality mental health care when they need it, and we are doing something about it. At Kaiser Permanente, we employ 2,400 mental health care professionals here in Southern California, and we have built a robust network of more than 13,000 community-based mental health care providers, to ensure we deliver timely, affordable, high-quality mental health care. We have expanded our mental health care in California and invested more than $1 billion since 2020 in new care facilities and expanded capacity for in-person visits. Despite a national workforce crisis, we’ve grown our mental health workforce in California by 22%. Through these actions and many more, we have been improving mental health care in the state, and meeting our patients’ needs for timely, high-quality care. Unfortunately, the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), which represents much of our mental health care workforce, very often uses strikes as a bargaining tool. We have been negotiating a new contract with the union since this summer, and it once again called on our mental health professionals to go on strike. Despite this unnecessary disruption, we have ensured that everyone who needs an appointment can get on
STRIKE MENTAL HEALTH KAISER PERMANENTE CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS HEALTHCARE WORKERS
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