National Nurses United

NewsBriefs_DEC 12/22/10 6:20 PM Page 4 NEWS BRIEFS Massachusetts RNs Wage Campaign to Protect Psych Beds MASSACHUSETTS M assachusetts Nurses Association members, along with mental health advocates, concerned patients and family members, community leaders, and elected officials, packed a December Department of Public Health hearing at Burbank Hospital in Fitchburg, Mass. to voice strong opposition to the proposed closing of its 15-bed psychiatric unit. MNA along with its partner in this campaign, the National Alliance on Mental Illness Massachusetts, are deeply concerned about the loss of inpatient psychiatric beds throughout the state and the impact this is having on the mental health safety net. MNA has made the Burbank closing a rallying cry to draw public and legislative attention to the issue of access to mental health services, attracting significant media attention to the cause, placing ads in the local papers, and mobilizing policy makers to focus on this growing crisis. The state Department of Public Health 4 N AT I O N A L N U R S E took more than four hours of testimony from public officials, nurses, community members, and people who have used, or are using, mental health services in deciding how it will address Health Alliance's plans. "There is a great need for secure inpatient facilities," stated Yvonne Senecal, RN, a psychiatric nurse on the Burbank unit and chair of MNA's local bargaining unit. "Our patients deserve to be cared for close to their homes. That is where their family is, where their friends and where their treatment providers are." State Sen. Jennifer L. Flanagan, chairwoman of the Senate Mental Health and Substance Abuse Committee, said she is concerned that, if Burbank closes its mental health unit, it will set a trend and spill over into other hospitals. She said that as more facilities close, it will become more difficult for patients to travel to where they can receive treatment and their families to visit them. "We don't have a bus to get them to where they are going to send them," she said. Donna Kelly-Williams, RN president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, was one of several nurses to speak against closW W W. N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G ing the mental health unit. She said there is a critical shortage of mental health beds in the state and patients are clogging emergency rooms waiting, for up to 72 hours, for a bed in a psychiatric unit. Kelly-Williams said there is no financial or clinical justification for closing the Burbank facility. Burbank has reported to the state a profit of more than $130 million over the past 18 months. "If it happens, people in this and surrounding communities who are experiencing an acute mental health crisis will receive substandard care, travel long distances for care, or go without care altogether," she said. "Some will end up homeless, some will end up receiving care in our corrections facilities, and some will end up dead." Representatives of local law enforcement also advocated to keep the mental health unit open, saying that mentally ill people left untreated and out on the streets may end up arrested by police officers who are From left: Opponents of closing Burbank Hospital's psych unit packed the hearing room; Burbank psych RN Karen Desnoyers argues against cutting beds DECEMBER 2010

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