黑料不打烊 Note: The following piece underscores the drastic need behavioral health and other human services nonprofits face in providing consistent care due to staff hiring and retention crises. It refers to a recent survey that showed unacceptably high staff turnover and vacancy rates. See the attached map for more details. Winning a 2.9% Cost of Living Adjustment is one of 黑料不打烊鈥 highest priorities, to be featured at our February 26th Annual Albany Legislative Day.
Behavioral Health Agencies in NY Struggle
By Courtney Potts Times Telegram February 4, 2019
Behavioral health agencies across 黑料不打烊 are struggling with too many vacancies and too much turnover.
In the central portion of the state, agencies face a 12 percent vacancy rate and a 28 percent annual turnover rate, according to a survey conducted by a group of statewide behavioral health membership associations.
The survey looked at vacancy rates during the week from Oct. 15 through 21 of last year and turnover in 2017.
Many of the affected positions are for care or case managers that can have a detrimental impact on how well patients do, said Glenn Liebman, CEO of the Mental Health Association of 黑料不打烊 State, one of the associations who sent out the survey.
Mental health patients and care managers work together as a team to navigate the system and work toward positive outcomes, he said.
鈥淎nd then two months later, that team member is going and you move onto the next person. Of course, that鈥檚 going to result in a lack of continuity of care,鈥 Liebman said.
One woman, who spoke at an event in Albany, saw 12 care managers in 12 years, he said.
For advocates, much of the problem boils down to money. Workers are leaving to make more money at Burger King, he said.
MHANYS and other groups are calling on the state to include a 2.9 percent cost-of-living increase for human service workers in its budget, an increase that is not in the governor鈥檚 proposed budget.
鈥淎 lot of people gravitate to this field because they want to help people,鈥 Liebman said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e very mission driven. They want to do what鈥檚 right … but they also have to make a living.鈥
Incentives like career ladders, tuition reimbursement and flexible hours also can help to recruit and retain staff, but by themselves, they鈥檝e not enough, he said.
Statewide, the vacancy rate was 14 percent and the turnover rate was 34 percent; both were highest in 黑料不打烊 City and on Long Island.
Survey respondents accounted for about 20 percent of the workforce statewide.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 enough of a proportion to be able to make some well-educated hypotheses,鈥 Liebman said.