FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 23, 2010                                    click here for PDF
CONTACT: Jennifer Munt ▪ 651-357-8544

The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) released a plan this month to redesign the state’s mental health services by cutting $17 million and 200 jobs. Today, the union representing regional treatment center workers told legislators that this blueprint is likely to increase costs, put more staff in danger, and harm the treatment of adults with mental illnesses.

Case in point: St. Peter Regional Treatment Center. Four years ago, the state laid off staff in the State Operated Services Forensic Division. Today, with 200 fewer workers, patient assaults against staff have increased 408 percent – from 35 assaults in 2005 to 143 in 2009. In the last year, security counselors have been hospitalized 117 times with injuries including broken limbs, concussions, skin lacerations from human bites, and burns from being doused with boiling liquids. One mentally ill patient was responsible for 43 of the assaults and management did nothing to control his violent behavior.

“The human cost of understaffing is unconscionable,” says Eliot Seide, director of AFSCME Council 5. “The pain and financial cost of these injuries could be avoided with adequate staffing.” In 2009, there were 1,300 lost work days due to patient assaults at St. Peter. Nearly 32,500 hours of overtime cost DHS more than $1 million. Add to that the staggering cost of emergency room visits and workers’ compensation.

“Keeping workers and the public safe is our top priority,” explains Seide. “Frontline workers know how to reduce costs without compromising safety, but DHS didn’t ask us. They’ve done nothing to address these violent assaults. And now they’ve got a blueprint to repeat the same mistakes.”

To streamline services for the mentally ill, Seide recommends that “DHS needs to move resources to the point of services, flatten layers of management, and drive fear from the workplace. That’s the kind of change that staff, patients and taxpayers deserve.”

AFSCME Council 5 is a union of 43,000 workers who advocate for excellence in public services, dignity in the workplace, and opportunity and prosperity for all working families.

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