Kaiser Is Turning Back The Clock On Mental Health Care
As Kaiser therapists, we don’t just treat patients, we advocate for them.
Kaiser Is Turning Back The Clock On Mental Health Care
As Kaiser therapists, we don’t just treat patients, we advocate for them.
We’ve passed landmark laws requiring Kaiser to reduce wait times for therapy sessions and fought hard to secure more time to meet the needs of Kaiser patients.
Just two years ago, Kaiser finally acknowledged understaffing clinics and making patients wait too long for therapy as part of a $200 million Settlement Agreement with California regulators in 2023.
With support from Kaiser patients, we were making progress, but now Kaiser is turning back the clock.
Kaiser has fewer in-house therapists today than it did a year ago.
Instead of hiring enough therapists, Kaiser is cutting costs, implementing one-size fits-all treatment programs, pursuing AI initiatives and outsourcing care.
Instead of giving us the time and tools we need to best treat patients, Kaiser is ignoring our expertise, going so far as to put patients at risk by having unlicensed call center operators decide how patients are referred for treatment.
Kaiser Is Turning Back The Clock On Mental Health Care, But It’s Not Too Late To Stop Them. We’re Calling On Kaiser To Embrace A Contract In Northern California That:
Protects the patient care standards we’ve fought so hard to win, including making sure therapists have enough time to perform critical patient care duties that can’t be done during appointments, such as responding to patient calls and emails, connecting patients with community support, updating patient charts, and coordinating care with doctors.
Requires Kaiser to hire more therapists to meet the growing demand for mental healthcare, and to keep mental healthcare as part of Kaiser’s integrated healthcare delivery system – not relegate it to a satellite system that separates therapists from the rest of Kaiser’s care team.
Ensures that new technologies supplement our clinical expertise, not sabotage or supplant it.
Guarantees that from the moment a patient seeks mental health services, their care is guided by licensed therapists — not call center operators, AI tools, or the rigid requirements of one-size-fits-all treatment programs.
Establishes a constructive working relationship between Kaiser and its behavioral health clinicians to uphold the rights of patients to care that is timely, easily accessible, culturally competent and in full compliance with clinical standards and state mental health laws.
For The Last Decade, We Have Fought For — And Won — Progress
For Patients And Therapists.
Now Kaiser Is Turning Back The Clock In Order To Cut Corners And Cut Costs.
Don’t Let Kaiser Cut Patients And Therapists Out Too.