Kaiser Permanente mental health professionals demand action for their patients
New state report shows Kaiser’s long history of mental health misconduct remains uncorrected. Giant healthcare provider with 4.8 million members in Southern California only fixed one out of 20 violations.
LOS ANGELES— Fed up with Kaiser Permanente’s failure to address the needs of patients, mental health professionals who work for the giant health provider in Los Angeles will hold a five-day hunger strike beginning April 7. These behavioral health workers are putting their own health and safety on the line to draw attention to Kaiser’s mental health services that are not getting better and not making patients better.
Last week, the California Department of Managed Health Care issued a stinging 88-page report finding that Kaiser still has not fixed long-standing deficiencies that, for years, have forced patients to wait far too long for therapy appointments in violation of state law.
“Many of us chose to work for Kaiser believing that we would have the opportunity to provide life-saving mental health care through Kaiser’s integrated model of service delivery,” said licensed clinical social worker with Kaiser, Kassaundra Gutierrez-Thompson. “But Kaiser forces us to treat patients like they’re on an assembly line. Kaiser focuses on quantity, not quality, and patients don’t get the thorough, personalized care they need. Nobody benefits from that.”
A recent report from the California Department of Managed Health Care found that as of February 2025, Kaiser had remedied only 1 out of 20 violations found in a 2022 “non-routine survey,” one of two separate investigations that led to a $200 million penalty, including a $50 million fine against Kaiser in 2023, the largest such penalty in state history.
“Kaiser’s systemic behavioral health failures have fatal consequences for communities throughout Southern California and the entire state. There is no shortage of evidence that Kaiser’s mental health system is dangerously broken and has been for a long time,” said Sal Rosselli, president emeritus of the National Union of Healthcare Workers. “We know this from the thousands of patients we’ve seen suffer directly over many years, as well as from Kaiser’s past, recent, and ongoing record of state regulatory actions and fines.”
More than 2,400 Kaiser mental health care staff across Southern California have joined picket lines over the past six months in an effort to boost care for Kaiser’s 4.8 million members in Southern California. Now, through a hunger strike, members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers are putting their own health on the line in an ongoing effort to improve health care for patients and reverse Kaiser’s record of misconduct.
WHO: Kaiser Mental Health Professionals
WHAT: Five-Day Hunger Strike
WHEN – MEDIA AVAILABILITY:
- Monday, April 7 and Friday, April 11: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Tuesday, April 8; Wednesday, April 9; and Thursday, April 10: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
WHERE: Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center, 4867 W. Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles
