600 CT DMHAS staff vacancies make agency unsafe, SEIU says

Healthcare workers at the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services called out the agency’s leadership Thursday for failing to address a large number of staff vacancies they say is creating an unsafe environment for workers and patients.

More than 600 positions are currently vacant at DMHAS, according to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Coupled with an ever-higher-needs population requiring intensive care, these vacancies have created a crisis that has resulted in a higher rate of employee injuries, union representatives said.

“There has to be more bodies on the ground. Patients aren’t getting the care they need and our members are getting hurt,” Rebecca Simonsen, vice president of SEIU 1199NE State Division, said during a press conference Thursday near from the entrance to Connecticut Valley Hospital in Middletown.

This summer, the union presented a petition to DMHAS Commissioner Nancy Navarretta, signed by a large majority of its members, demanding that the department take steps to ensure a safe work environment for its workers, who work in centers of state-run behavioral health facilities, including Connecticut Valley Hospital and Whiting Forensic Hospital.

“We want him to do the right thing,” Simonsen said of Navarretta. “But we need to see action from her. We haven’t and we will do whatever it takes to improve patient services.”

Rebecca Simonsen, vice president of SEIU State Division 1199NE, speaks at a news conference Thursday about staff vacancies at the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. Credit: Laura Tillman

Simonsen said a vote of no confidence in Navarretta could be on the table in the future.

In response to a request for comment Thursday, Navarretta wrote that DMHAS remains committed to ensuring the work environment is safe for everyone.

“We are proud to note that our staffing levels are higher today than they were prior to the pandemic, and we have worked diligently to address both staffing needs and worker safety. Safety is a top priority for DMHAS , that’s why we have robust emergency response systems and maintain acuity-based staffing ratios that prioritize the safety of both our employees and the people we serve.We value the voices of our employees and remain dedicated to addressing them concerns through collaboration.”

Since the petition was brought to Navarretta, the union says DMHAS has made limited progress and staff vacancies remain at dangerous levels.

“Meanwhile, the Office of Policy and Management is claiming a budget crisis and blaming so-called fiscal barriers, or as we like to call them, fiscal deadlocks,” Simonsen said.

The state of Connecticut has more than $4 billion in a budget reserve fund, a so-called “rainy day fund,” designed by Gov. Ned Lamont to be used in the event of a fiscal emergency like a massive recession. But workers on Thursday said the money is now desperately needed, repeating the refrain: “rain”.

“You have a direct responsibility to send us home whole,” said Pastor Samuel Saylor, one of the speakers, addressing the governor. “Stop being stingy with your taxpayer dollars to make sure life is better in Connecticut. Life is not better in certain parts of our community and we need to make it better for the working person.”

DMHAS employees at a press conference Thursday argued that staff vacancies create a dangerous work environment for workers and patients. Credit: Laura Tillman

Tamika James, lead forensic treatment specialist at the Whiting Forensic Hospital, said she has been injured a dozen times on the job, including one injury that required neck surgery. “Unfortunately, because of some compensation issues, we’re being rushed back to work now. There are a lot of unfair measures being taken, in this environment we can’t take care of ourselves. So it’s hard to take care of the patients who need us.”

Brian Williams, a union organizer and certified addiction counselor with DMHAS, said workers are often injured on the job when responding to a psychiatric emergency, and those injuries have accelerated in volume and severity.

“The level of injuries they’re seeing right now is not far off what it’s been for the last five years, ten years,” Williams said. Recently, Williams said, a group of seven workers were injured in one incident and another group of six workers were injured in another incident. In the second case, one of these workers had to be taken by ambulance to a hospital.

Sharon White, a mental health assistant at Connecticut Valley Hospital, said she is often asked to work overtime several times a week, working until 11 p.m. instead of 3 a.m. because not enough staff.

Going to work has become a practice in uncertainty.

“I don’t know what I’m getting into, that’s what’s scary,” White said. “I want to come home in one piece.”

White said he witnessed a patient grab a nurse, put her in a headlock and attack her.

“When we call ‘all available,’ that means the available staff are supposed to come, but when you’re running the building at minimum, there’s no one available to come and help.”

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