In a proposal that is as baffling as it is irresponsible, new regulations from the California Department of Public Health will prevent Californians from getting the mental health care they desperately need.
Today, millions of Californians need support for mental health disorders and they should be able to count on care being available when they are in crisis.
On the surface, the CDPH proposals increase staffing at freestanding psychiatric hospitals — adding more people who care for those in crisis. But because they require that these new staffing requirements be met by Jan. 31, hospitals would have just 11 days to recruit, vet, hire, and train staff. Hospitals that cannot meet the new requirements in time will be forced to reduce the number of psychiatric beds available to Californians.
This impractical and unachievable rush to implementation means that the only choice is to reduce the number of patients who can be cared for by our frontline mental health workers, therapists, nurses, and doctors.
More than 800 hospital psychiatric beds in California will be left empty as a result of the unrealistic time frame. Given that each staffed bed serves almost 20 patients annually, these closures would mean a loss of capacity to serve more than 16,000 psychiatric patients annually, or 1,360 fewer patients a month. These reductions would include child and adolescent beds, where access is already critically limited and alternatives are scarce.
The ripple effect on communities would be disastrous — patients in behavioral health crisis often experience prolonged boarding in emergency rooms, sometimes for days, limiting or delaying access for other patients who need care for heart attacks, strokes, and injuries, as well as children requiring emergency services.
Hospitals are committed to safe staffing and to enhancing current staffing levels. Ensuring that they hire the right people to care for California’s most vulnerable takes time, especially during a nationwide workforce shortage of psychiatric care professionals. The closures will mean that Californians are left in the lurch.
“In the past, Gov. Newsom has been a champion for improving mental health care — just recently touting hundreds of new beds his investments are building — but this new policy does the opposite, reducing access to care for those in need,” said Carmela Coyle, President & CEO of the California Hospital Association. “We call on Gov. Newsom to be pragmatic — to support the dedicated caregivers of those who face great personal challenges — by allowing the time needed to make changes without forcing caregivers to STOP the good work they do.”