By Zachary K. Johnson
The Record
STOCKTON — Officials say the new prison health care facility on the edge of Stockton has already siphoned away a significant number of county mental health workers.
So far, Behavioral Health Services has lost about one-fifth of its psychiatric technicians to the California Health Care Facility, an $839 million operation that houses more than 1,700 sick or mentally ill state prisoners.
County officials embrace the facility and the 2,400 new, permanent jobs it is expected to create, but they recognize they are competing for a shared and limited pool of mental health workers. A legal settlement spawned a concerted effort from the state, county and San Joaquin Delta College to quickly certify hundreds of new “psych techs” to prevent a shortage.
“All of that was going according to plan,” county Behavioral Health Services Director Vic Singh said. “But even a good plan can’t anticipate everything.”
But the loss of psych techs was greater and happened sooner than expected. Services haven’t suffered, but the county is spending more on overtime. Whether the shortage is a temporary blip or something that would prompt the county to consider scaling back its 24/7 crisis readiness depends on how successfully the county can recruit new workers, then not lose them to higher-paying jobs at the state facility.
Among other things, psych techs can give medication and are trained to recognize and document psychiatric symptoms, according to the county. The salary for county psych techs ranges from $41,000 to $50,000 a year. The same position at the prison facility ranges from $56,000 to $65,000.
Singh said the hope was that transfers from other state facilities and new psych techs from Delta would fill slots at the new facility and lessen the impact on the county, he said. But the sheer size of the new facility all but guaranteed there would be some local impact, he said.
County Mental Health has lost 10 of its 50 psych techs, he said. The California Health Care facility is jointly operated by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, California Correctional Health Care Services and the Department of State Hospitals.
So far, the Department of State Hospitals has filled 140 of the 426 psych tech and 40 senior psych tech positions expected at the facility, department spokesman Ralph Montano said. The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is expected to hire 80 psych techs for a unit that has yet to open.
Of the 140 hired, 25 came from other state hospitals, and an additional 13 transfers are expected, according to the Department of State Hospitals. It was unclear how many came from other state agencies.
Representatives from the county and the state talked about psych techs at a meeting Wednesday. “We understand that other facilities or programs in the region may experience temporary shortages,” Stirling Price, executive director of the Department of State Hospitals-Stockton said in an emailed statement. “DSH is examining ways to mediate these issues and still meet our important staffing needs at DSH-Stockton.”
Plans to build the state facility began when a federal judge found the health care available to state prisoners fell short of constitutional standards. Initially met with stiff opposition, the facility has been embraced by local officials following a legal settlement reached in 2010 after Stockton and San Joaquin County joined a lawsuit brought by the Greater Stockton Chamber of Commerce. The wide-ranging settlement arranged everything from money to improve infrastructure to local-hiring incentives during construction to efforts to help locals get permanent jobs.
It paid to build a secure unit at San Joaquin General Hospital that has already proved to be a money-spinner for the county hospital, where officials expect it will continue to handle prisoner patients.
And it called for the facility to work with San Joaquin Delta College to train licensed workers, including psych techs, who would be working at the facility. The state paid $1.3 million toward the program, which then added a $1.5 million federal grant. It is expected to train 270 through 2014. After that, it would handle 40 students a year.
But there just wasn’t enough time for the Delta program to prevent the shortfall at the county, Health Services Director Ken Cohen said. In addition to the loss of mental health psych techs, the county lost three of the seven positions who screen inmates at the County Jail, he said.
That screening is a vital role that can help prevent fights, suicides and assaults on correctional officers, said John Huber, both the former assistant sheriff in charge of the San Joaquin County Jail and a member of the new facility’s Citizens’ Advisory Committee. The Delta program will help provide trained psych techs for the county, he said. “It’s going to take a while to catch up, ... but I think it will.”
The Delta program allows residents to stay in the county to earn the certification for a good local job, whether it’s with the state or the county, he said.
The facility is expected to be full and fully staffed by the end of the year.
It does not include the Dewitt Nelson Correctional Annex next door, a 1,133-bed facility for inmates needing psychiatric care scheduled to be completed in 2014.