Mario Valenzuela, labor representative for Local 1000, puts up signs on the Patton State Hospital marquee protesting for a pay increase. Around 20 hospital employees participated in the March 2007 demonstration in San Bernardino. Our biggest thing is to ensure the health and safety of our patients and staff and to fill many vacancies, said Cindy Barrett, a spokeswoman for Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino.
Hopefully getting salaries that are comparable with the outside world will help us do that. The state's five mental hospitals have had to restrict the number of mentally ill patients they can accept from the prison system, because of severe staffing shortages. At Patton, there is a 39 percent vacancy rate among psychiatrists, 54 percent among psychologists and 37 percent among rehabilitation therapists, Barrett said We're hopeful that this will help us keep the dedicated staff we have and to fill vacancies, said Kirsten Deichert, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Mental Health in Sacramento.
Mental health officials blame the vacancies in part on the higher pay in the prison system, and they feared the losses would only get worse unless some sort of parity in pay was instituted. The drain began after a federal judge in December ordered big raises for mental health care workers in the prisons, to take effect in March. The raises were aimed at drawing highly qualified medical professionals, but they also caused many employees of the state's mental hospitals to jump ship for better pay.
In March, the federal judge ordered pay raises for psychiatrists and other staff members. But pay checks for nurses and other staffers still fell short. The Department of Mental Health pays registered nurses from about $5,000 to $6,600 a month.
That's compared to about $7,000 to $8,700 a month in the prisons. Nurses and other health care workers picketed at Patton and other hospitals in March to protest their comparatively low pay. Reach Gregor McGavin at 951-368-9549 or gmcgavin@PE.
com. Mario Valenzuela, labor representative for Local 1000, puts up signs on the Patton State Hospital marquee protesting for a pay increase.
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