Kaiser Mental Health Clinicians Consider Strike

Last week, it was the nurses who went on strike. On Thursday, a union of 2,500 mental health clinicians at Kaiser will release the results of a strike authorization vote. Two months ago, Kaiser agreed to pay a $4 million fine levied by state regulators. The Dept. of Managed Health Care found patients were subject to excessively long wait times between therapy appointments, or were shuttled into groups when they wanted individual therapy. Some Kaiser mental health workers say recent fixes, like after-hours appointments, still aren't meeting demand.