September 23, 2024
Great people, great system, great care
A letter to our mental health professionals about our behavioral health and addiction medicine care and Kaiser Permanente's integrated model.
This message was sent from Maria Villarosa, MD, assistant regional medical director and service line leader, Behavioral Health, Southern California Permanente Medical Group; Dawn Gillam, LCSW, executive leader/service line, Behavioral Health, Southern California Permanente Medical Group; and Rhonda Chabran, LCSW, vice president, Behavioral Health and Wellness, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals, Southern California and Hawaii.
Over the past several years, we’ve been working together to build a better model of mental health care. Kaiser Permanente’s unique integrated care model is foundational to our efforts, affording us the distinct ability to coordinate our members’ care across our system to better support the mental and physical health of our members and patients.
We know mental health and addiction medicine care is more than a job, it’s a calling.
Our integrated care model may be one of the reasons you chose to practice at Kaiser Permanente. Your vital work, coupled with the power of our integrated model, ensures that the care our members receive is coordinated, personalized, and culturally sensitive.
We are investing in our mental health professionals.
We are grateful that the average tenure of our mental health professionals in Southern California is 8 years. Fewer than 10% of our mental health professionals choose to leave Kaiser Permanente each year, well below the industry average.
We understand that investing in our mental health workforce is not just about filling positions. It’s about creating meaningful opportunities that serve a crucial role in our communities. The Southern California-based Behavioral Health Training Institute supports training for students before they complete their master’s degrees. We are proud to employ associate therapists while providing a competency-based and feedback-informed supervision model. This means graduates do not have to find their own clinical rotations and are trained by highly skilled licensed supervisors. Programs like the Mental Health Scholars Academy and Kaiser Permanente Mental Health Training Program are providing pathways for hundreds more future therapists to fulfill their own calling to the mental health profession.
You play a direct role in helping Kaiser Permanente build a better model of health care.
We cannot overstate how important you are to our vision of providing high-quality, integrated mental health care. We are committed to working with NUHW to reach an agreement that supports you and the meaningful work you do to deliver the best mental health and addiction medicine care for our members and patients. Such an agreement would also build on the highly competitive wages, benefits, and environment that maintain our position as a great place to work and to receive care.
We are negotiating to reach a new agreement with NUHW that is good for you, our members, and our patients. We are committed to reaching an agreement without interruptions to our patients’ care. We encourage you to ask your union to do the same.
Thank you for all you do each day.
