2,400 Kaiser mental health professionals, including therapists, psychiatrists, and drug treatment counselors will hold picket lines across the state including at Oakland Medical Center, and Santa Rose Medical Center.
Emma Olsen is a psychologist at Kaiser Vallejo, she specializes in treating patients with ADHD. She says the strike is to protest cost cutting shortcuts Kaiser is taking that are affecting patient care.
“Trying to force us to see more patients back to back. So, wanting us to work like an assembly line. They’ve hired unqualified telephone representatives to screen patients when they call for help instead of using actual licensed therapists. And there’s even been talk of wanting to just completely outsource all of the mental health services at Kaiser, or even replacing some of our work with AI.”
In the last few years, Kaiser has been fined hundreds of millions of dollars for mental health care violations. In 2023, they settled a 200 million dollar lawsuit with the California Department of Managed Healthcare. And this year they reached a 31 million dollar settlement with the U.S. Department of Labor over mental health parity laws.
Lionel Sims is the Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Kaiser Permanente Northern California. In an emailed statement to KALW, he said the unions claims are false.
“We are hiring more therapists, training new ones, and investing heavily to improve access to mental health care at a time when demand is higher than ever,” wrote Sims. “We believe AI can be helpful when it supports clinicians—by reducing administrative work or improving efficiency—but it does not replace clinical judgment or human assessment.”
Kaiser’s mental health workers contract expired at the end of September last year. The healthcare company and the union are still trying to reach an agreement about the new contract.
23,000 registered nurses, represented by the California Nurses Association, are joining Kaiser’s mental health professionals in a ‘sympathy strike’. Kaiser says they have plans to ensure this won’t impact patient care, and that they are reaching out to those whose appointments will need to be rescheduled.
Picket lines will begin at 6 a.m. in Oakland and Sacramento, and at 8 a.m. in Santa Clara, Santa Rosa, and Fresno. The strike will end at 2 p.m.