MENTAL HEALTH AGENCY UNDER FIRE
THE DIRECTOR DENIES THE COUNTY GRAND JURY'S ALLEGATIONS REGARDING
EMPLOYEES' TREATMENT.
Published: Tuesday,
March 3, 1998
Section: LOCAL
Page#: B03
Skip Morgan
The Press-Enterprise
RIVERSIDE
The Riverside County grand jury has accused the county's
mental health agency of creating an unhealthy working environment
for its employees.
In a report county supervisors will receive today, the grand
jury found intolerable working conditions in the Mental Health
Department's inpatient treatment facility in Riverside.
At the 77-bed facility on County Farm Road, where employees
raised complaints over staffing levels and overtime pay during the
past two years, the grand jury reported that it found
"considerable evidence that management is lacking in
human-relations skill and sensitivity to the employee."
"Insensitive remarks about individuals made in public,
use of abusive language and remarks bordering on sexual
harassment" were among problems cited in the grand jury report.
These charges were vehemently denied by county Mental Health
Director John Ryan, who described the facility's managers as
"caring, dedicated and hardworking."
No employees were subjected to sexual harassment, he said. "The
Department of Mental Health has zero tolerance for sexual
harassment."
Mental health employees, however, apparently saw the
situation differently.
Employees who complain are threatened with transfers to
different shifts, said Linda Jefferson, who used to work as a
psychiatric technician at the Riverside facility.
Or they receive assignments outside their training. Jefferson
now works at the United Public Employees of California union.
Jefferson, whose union job includes representing clerical and
maintenance workers at the mental health agency, said employees have
been told if they become too vocal in their complaints that
management will seek to contract with a private company to operate
the facility.
No such threat was ever been raised, said Ryan. He did not
believe any employees had been threatened with unfavorable job
assignments.
"I'm sure that with all the avenues available for
employee complaints that people will take advantage of these
opportunities," he said.
Ryan said he was pleased that the grand jury did not cite any
problems with patient care in its report.
In 1996, an unsigned letter to the grand jury and county
supervisors from employees in the mental health treatment facility
claimed that low staffing levels were putting patients' safety at
risk.
Ryan later told supervisors that there was adequate staff at
the facility to assure patient safety.
However, a subsequent report by the state Health Services
Department found that there was not always adequate staff assigned
to the facility to protect patients.
It takes about 60 days to fill staff vacancies, Ryan said.
This means that the facility must require employees to work
overtime or use temporary nursing registries to maintain required
staffing levels.
As of last July, Riverside County Human Resources Director
Ron Komers said only 12 of 44 acute-care nursing positions at the
facility were filled. The required staffing levels were maintained
through the use of registry nurses, a report indicated.
In July 1996, Jefferson filed a grievance alleging widespread
problems with paying the correct amount of overtime pay to employees
at the treatment facility. The grievance was denied and an appeal
was dropped when Jefferson left her job to go to work for the union,
Komers said.
Zone: RIVERSIDE; DESERT & PASS; HEMET-SAN
JACINTO; TEMECULA-MURRIETA; SOUTHWEST; CORONA-NORCO; MORENO VALLEY
