[ Psychologists, social workers, psychiatric nurses and chemical
dependency counselors, who provide care at seven clinics and a call
center on Oʻahu, Maui and the Hawaiʻi Island are on strike. They
have joined striking healthcare workers in California. ]
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KAISER MENTAL HEALTH STRIKE ENTERS DAY 3 WITH PICKET LINE MOVING TO
MAUI  
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Wendy Osher
August 31, 2022
Maui News
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_ Psychologists, social workers, psychiatric nurses and chemical
dependency counselors, who provide care at seven clinics and a call
center on Oʻahu, Maui and the Hawaiʻi Island are on strike. They
have joined striking healthcare workers in California. _

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The mental health strike at Kaiser moves to Maui today as the
open-ended event enters Day 3. Clinicians with the _National Union of
Healthcare Workers_ will hold a picket today, Aug. 31, from 8 a.m. to
2 p.m. at the Kaiser Maui Lani Medical Office, located at 55 Maui Lani
Parkway in Wailuku.

Across the state, Kaiser Permanente mental health care workers,
represented by the NUHW union began the strike Monday with picket
lines in Honolulu and other locations on Oʻahu. After today’s Maui
picket, the strike line will move to the Hawaiʻi Island on Thursday
before returning to Oʻahu during the Labor Day weekend. Kaiser’s
mental health care workers in California also have been on strike over
the same issues since Aug. 15.

According to the union, Kaiser Permanente employs 57 mental health
care workers, including nine on Maui. With 266,000 subscribers across
Hawai’i, the NUHW says the ratio is not enough, “resulting in
dangerously long wait times that far exceed clinical standards.” 

The health care provider issued a statement saying “We take any
potential disruption of services very seriously and have plans to
ensure our members and patients continue to receive safe, high-quality
care.”

According to Kaiser Permanente’s Labor Update
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provider added 11 new Behavioral Health clinical positions to be
filled in 2022, and hired 28 clinicians in Hawaiʻi since the start of
2021, eight of whom will be starting work in the next two months.

“The simplistic math of dividing Kaiser Permanente Hawaiʻi’s
total membership by the number of NUHW represented staff results in
inflated caseload counts that are inaccurate and misleading,”
according to the KP Labor Update.

The health care provider laid out reasons they came to this
conclusion: 

* The approximately 60 Behavioral Health clinicians represented by
NUHW are just one part of Kaiser Permanente Hawaiʻi’s mental health
care team, along with 15 psychiatrists and additional behavioral
healthcare staff.
* Not every Kaiser Permanente member seeks mental health services.
* KPHI continues to hire more clinical staff and are currently
recruiting for 14 open positions for psychologists, LCSWs, and LMHP.

The union disagrees saying: “Although Kaiser told state officials in
writing that it planned to hire 44 more clinicians, the number of
full-time Kaiser workers providing direct mental health therapy in
Hawaiʻi has decreased since November this year from 51 to 48, and
many clinicians report that their schedules are now completely booked
well into October.”

Rachel Kaya, a psychologist and Kaiser’s Maui Lani Medical Office
also disputes
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health care provider’s argument, saying her next available
appointment isn’t until November. “We actually have fewer
therapists seeing patients today on Maui than when we went on strike
in May over severe understaffing. Kaiser claims that it’s hiring
lots of people, but it’s really just trying to backfill the
positions of dedicated clinicians who don’t want to work for Kaiser
anymore.”

She’s among the list of striking psychologists, social workers,
psychiatric nurses and chemical dependency counselors, who provide
care at seven clinics and a call center on Oʻahu, Maui and the
Hawaiʻi Island.

“Kaiser couldn’t be more hypocritical when it comes to mental
health care,” said Sal Rosselli, president of the National Union of
Healthcare Workers in a press release issued earlier this week.
“When it gets in trouble for violating mental health access
standards, it pledges to boost staffing, but then it turns around and
demands cuts that will make its clinics more understaffed than
ever.”

The striking group argues that despite an $8.1 billion profit last
year, mental health clinicians face wage freezes and retirement
benefit cuts that they say would make recruitment “more difficult,
if not impossible.”

The striking group filed a 57-page complaint last November, citing
internal Kaiser records, saying patients were waiting months for
initial therapy sessions and that only 28% of Kaiser’s
out-of-network mental health providers were actually accepting new
Kaiser patients.

The National Committee for Quality Assurance recently downgraded
Kaiser’s accreditation status in Hawaiʻi placing the HMO  under
“corrective action
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Still, Kaiser Permanente Hawaiʻi recently made the Forbes
Top-10 list
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best employers in Hawaiʻi.  

In a statement a spokesperson with Kaiser Permanente Hawaiʻi said,
“It is disappointing that the National Union of Healthcare Workers
has again called on our dedicated and compassionate mental health
professionals to walk away from their patients in Hawaiʻi at a time
when the need for mental health care is so critical. We continue to
focus on providing high-quality care and urge the union to work with
us through the bargaining process to finalize a new agreement.”

Kaiser Permanente and the NUHW, which represents approximately 60
mental health professionals in Hawaiʻi, are negotiating an initial
contract. 

“We continue to bargain in good faith and are committed to reaching
a fair and equitable agreement. We have the greatest respect and
gratitude for our mental health professionals, and we are dedicated to
supporting them in their important work,” according to a Kaiser
Permanente Hawaiʻi statement. 

“People’s lives are at stake,” said Andrea Kumura, a licensed
clinical social worker at Kaiser’s Waipiʻo Medical Office in a
release. “Kaiser is making us violate our professional ethics by
delivering care that doesn’t meet the needs of our patients, and the
proposal that Kaiser has on the table would result in people waiting
even longer for care.”

The provider reports that if appointment or service changes are
required, they will contact any affected patients. 

Wendy Osher leads the Maui Now news team. She is also the news voice
of parent company, Pacific Media Group, having served more than 20
years as News Director for the company’s six Maui radio stations

* National Union of Healthcare Workers
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* Kaiser Permanente
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