[December 15, 2014]

Psychiatric Technicians Say Patients and Staff in Danger in California's State Prisons

The California Association of Psychiatric Technicians is holding an informational meeting 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday, December 22, at the Corcoran YMCA Senior Center (900 Dairy Road) to address the union's protest of the drastically inadequate staffing changes at California State Prison-Corcoran and potentially other state prisons.

CAPT has been strongly opposed to the change in staffing since the proposals were issued in September. On November 7, CAPT activists and staff met with California Department of Human Resources and California Correctional Health Care Services staff to voice major concerns with the newly proposed master assignment rosters for Psychiatric Technician staffing in our state prisons.

Despite assurances from the state that it would audit the staffing models and address our concerns, CSP (News - Alert)-Corcoran ignored the directive and moved forward with the unsafe staffing changes on December 2.

On December 11, CAPT gave CCHCS officials yet another opportunity to stop and reverse the dangerous staffing changes at CSP-Corcoran.

Again, our safety-based concerns were ignored.

The new staffing changes place staff and inmate-patients at great risk, requiring many of our Psych Techs to now cover both high-volume medication administration and mental health rounds during the same shift.

"The staffing model doesn't meet the standard of care that inmate-patients should receive, nor does it uphold the 'constitutional' level of care mandated by the federal courts, so we must work to uphold the needs of our individuals and facilities' legal responsibility to those in our care," said CAPT Corrections Chapter President Jennifer Are.

The process of passing meds is detailed and strict protocol that must be adhered to. One Psych Tech may be required to administer to as many as 80 inmate-patients and process as many as 600 medications. Since December 2, the medication administration and mental health rounds at CSP-Corcoran have not been completed by the same person within an 8-hour shift.

"This new staffing model is just not possible, resulting in staff being mandated to stay over to complete the duties," said Ann Lyles, CAPT consultant. "In addition, the staffing changes were implemented without consideration of the already low staffing levels. In December there were 233 unfilled Psych Tech assignments at CSP-Corcoran."

The California Association of Psychiatric Technicians is the elected union representative for more than 6,000 state-employed Psychiatric Technicians and related employees who provide compassionate, professional nursing, mental health and developmental services for the Californians in our care.

CAPT also is the professional organization for all of California's 14,000 Licensed Psychiatric Technicians.

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