UC mental health workers fight back against below-market pay, ever-increasing patient loads; in UCR, they win a 12% equity increase
Mental health workers across UC are standing up and advocating for themselves and the important mental health care they provide. On January 10, over 20 health professionals at UC Santa Barbara delivered a petition and met with Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs to express concerns about workload and cost of living, while Behavioral Health Workers at UC Riverside successfully petitioned for reclassification.
UC administrators have failed to staff up campus mental health services to meet demand. Clinicians are concerned about delays in care for students who need help managing stress, depression, substance abuse, and suicidality. Frontline mental health workers are struggling with stress and trauma of their own, as many worry about making ends meet.
"I took a pay cut to come here from my previous job and have struggled to survive from day one. I've had to break leases. I experienced countless sleepless nights living in my car for seven months, worrying about my safety as storms swept through the region. I would wake up early in the morning to shower and get ready at the campus rec center," said Badia Siddiqi, a Behavioral Health Counselor at UCSB. "I love working with these students, but they express frustration to me all the time about wait times for appointments. We do what we can personally to make sure we see everyone as quickly as possible, but there is a limit. "
UC's ability to attract and retain staff is a patient care issue—as the student population grows and their needs become more complex, the burden on mental healthcare providers has grown.
"Many of us sacrifice with long commutes and high costs of living to work with our students. We often have to refer high-acuity students to outside providers, often resulting in further delays, compromised care, and increased complications with insurance," said Brandi McCallister, a Clinical Social Worker 3 at UCSB Student Health. "UCSB must provide easily accessible care to students. That's why almost every CAPs and Student Health professional signed our petition asking for an equity pay increase so that mental health workers can fulfill UC's promise to its students."
Behavioral health counselors (BHCs) at UC Riverside share the same workload concerns. "We see anywhere from 5-6 students per day in hour sessions, so 25 clients a week on average. It gets busy, especially when you factor in all of other responsibilities including supervising intern therapists, meetings, and more," said Heather Johnson, a BHC at UC Riverside.
These Riverside BHCs began the process to formally petition for reclassification back in November of 2022. They felt their job descriptions were outdated and realized they were being paid around 22% less than people performing similar work.
"We found our job descriptions on the HR website, and compared that to our actual day-to-day work, and saw how big the discrepancy was. So we sat down as a group, updated our CVs, and then wrote a long letter to our department head sharing our research and case for reclassification. It took time, but ultimately we were successful. We won 12% pay increases, including six months of backpay," Heather said.
With our big UC-wide contract negotiations on the horizon, mental health workers are also looking ahead to other important issues they want to fight to address, including staff-to-patient ratios, more manageable workloads, and additional care and support given to the people doing this deeply emotional work. If you are a mental health provider at UC and have workplace issues you'd like support tackling, reach out to your local leadership at upte.org/contact.