u/Whowhatwhen2

Down to 888 on Amazon. 

It's fun throwing stuff at my kids. 

Yup. 

My recommendation is that you contact the Department of Managed Healthcare and submit a complaint. Give a very, very detailed description of how long you have been on the medication, how it has benefitted you, and what you are like without it. Give as much detailed, factual information as you can and express that it makes no sense for your psychiatrist to make this decision at this time.

I don't understand what you're mad about, honestly. We haven't been anything but transparent. 10 hour shifts. 9 or 10 patients per shift. Maybe 8 if there's a meeting. Maybe 8 if there's a no show that doesn't get instantly booked as an intake. In ADAPT, it's 25 minute sessions. Back to back. No breaks other than a 30 minute lunch. 

Those other clinics you're talking about that have it hard, you're right, they do have it hard and I'd never take that claim away from them, or even try to. FSP is hard. ECM is hard. Field work is hard. Lots of stuff is hard. Lots of employers are hard and the working conditions suck. 

For some bizarre reason that you haven't fully verbalized, you're mad that we're trying to improve our working conditions. Why? 

I've worked at 3 other clinics and/or agencies and Kaiser is, by far, the hardest one to work for. I took a 25 percent pay increase when I went to Kaiser and it's not made up for by the increase in work. It's just not. You're talking about this like you know what you're talking about about, but you don't, because you're not in it. Every County contractor in my area has a 70 percent productivity standard. Same with county, except that some county departments are 60 rather than 70. Are there some shittier employers? Of course. Those employers should step up and treat their employees better, too. Your claims about turnover similarly hold little water, in my personal experience. I've never, ever, in my 18 years of experience, seen turnover someplace like I've seen it in Kaiser. 

You're mostly right. We aren't guaranteed any time off to study for licensing and there's a lot of strings attached for trainings and certifications. We are well paid and our health benefits are good. 

If my productivity (direct contact with patients) falls below 90 percent, I get in trouble. My case load is over 200. I have at least five intakes (new patients) per week. Prior to the strike, 4 of the 6 new employees hired did not last much longer than 1 year. They left Kaiser. For a place that is, according to you, a great place to work, that seems odd. Doesn't it?

Associates everywhere except for Kaiser are horribly under paid. Exploited, even. 

When other companies do their Cost of Living raises, you know who they're competing with? Kaiser. A rising tide lifts all boats. 

You would need to run it on your own private computer and then invite it to Discord. 

I hope you find something great in your job search!

People in caretaking professions are often told that we must not prioritize our own needs, and frankly, it's fucking bullshit.

They wrote a letter for us back in December, but I think that's the extent of it: https://nuhw.org/wp-content/uploads/NASWCA-NUHW-KP-Letter-2024-1.pdf

Don't do that! Get in there and get the meds if you need them. :)

A rising tide lifts all boats.

They didn't like where we were standing, and they told us to move. A couple of members argued with them for a few minutes, but ultimately relented to their stupid request.

How many clients do you do per week? In my private practice, I try to do that too. But it's way less volume. 

That sounds hideous. Where is this?

https://home.nuhw.org/2025/01/16/kaiser-mental-health-strike-picket-line-locations/

Thanks :)

Oh, and "my union" doesn't have me doing shit. It's my coworkers, my colleagues, and my patients who motivate me. "My union" doesn't force or persuade me. 

Not to mention the intense lies that Kaiser execs have told about us over the weeks. Blatant lies. My colleagues are pissed. 

It's not about the money. 

That absolutely factors into everything and it is something we all consider. 

Remember, many of us are licensed and we have been making ends meet with contract work of various sorts. And the retirement benefits we seek are also a significant driving force. And on top of all that, many of my colleagues aren't primarily focused on the financial end of things. Rather, the focus is on the patient care concerns, staff retention, and patient management time. 

In other words, it's not all about the money. 

That would be helpful. 

What? Nobody. I've got a little private practice and I'm digging into savings. 

In a 40 hour week, we have 37.5 hours of work on our schedule (30 minutes lunches account for the deduction). Maybe 2 or 3 hours of meetings. So, let's say 33 client hours. Currently, there is no "protected time" for charting or case management. So if my patient needs a referral to residential treatment, for example, I do that on my lunch. Or before work the next day. Or after work. What if there's a crisis? What if I have to call for a safety check? Currently, some of us have 3 hours per week for "patient management," but those hours often get booked into for various reasons, against our permission.  It is worth noting that our charting requirements are extensive.

Our ability to retain staff is laughably bad. I've never worked some place with such insanely high turnover. 

If we have a no show, it usually gets booked into by our clerical staff for an intake or some other urgent matter. 

Additionally, we have about 5 new intake slots per week. Do the math on that. How can we see that many new patients and still provide even biweekly therapy? Personally, I'm booked out around 5 weeks for return appointments.

As far as wages go, our union, NUHW, only wants the same cost of living raises that were given to the Coalition of Unions (Google it) within Kaiser. We also want the exact same retirement benefits that roughly 140,000 other Kaiser employees receive. It's equity that we want in regards to benefits and pay. Nothing special. 

There are other issues too, regarding our status as salaried exempt employees, regarding bilingual pay differential, student loan repayment, stuff like that. But the three issues above, those are the sticking points. 

Edit: please note that this varies a bit from clinic to clinic. For example, there's a program called ADAPT that is actually 30 minutes session. Really, 25 minutes with 5 minutes between sessions. And then some people have groups instead of individual, scattered through their schedules. And there are other variations too. But this basically summarizes it. 

I've worked at 3 other agencies. At all 3 of them, we weren't expected to have active face to face time with patients 32 hours per week. Maybe 24 or 25. And we certainly didn't get 5 new intakes every week. 

Yeah, that's a good question. In California (and probably elsewhere) we have to submit 10 days notice before the strike, which gives the employer a chance to figure out what to do. In our case, Kaiser paid scabs $13,000 per week to cover our positions. When the Kaiser Northern California workers went on strike, Kaiser later faced a $50 million dollar penalty because their plan didn't cover it.

The real solution is for Kaiser to settle our fucking contract.

edit: I can see by your post history that you're generally anti-union, which is illustrated by your anti-union comments regarding the Costco unionization efforts. Bye.