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Madden Mental Health Center workers protest staff shortage

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Illinois

* Media advisory…

Madden Mental Health employees to demonstrate over lack of staff

Frontline employees who support individuals with mental illness at Madden Mental Health Center in west suburban Hines, Ill., are raising awareness of a severe staff shortage at the state-operated facility and throughout state government.

Members of the Illinois Nurses Association (INA) and the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31 will hold an informational picket outside Madden MHC TOMORROW (Wednesday) morning, Oct. 26.

AFSCME and INA members say the lack of staff threatens to erode the quality of care for patients at Madden, poses a safety risk to employees, and is driving out-of-control overtime—including mandatory overtime—that is leading to burnout among workers.

* Background from AFSCME…

Madden MHC is a short-term psychiatric hospital treating people who are acutely mentally ill. The average length of stay is about three weeks.

In the first quarter of calendar 2022, Madden had 96 staff (monthly average) at any given time. Five years ago the facility had an average 138 staff; 10 years ago 168. (Although the average patient census has also declined, it has not dropped as steeply—to 92 patients today from 114 five years ago and 139 ten years ago.)

The staffing shortage is driving excessive overtime:

• The latest available is from July, when 91 AFSCME members at Madden worked nearly 2,000 hours of overtime.
• There were only 36 mental health technicians on staff (the largest direct-care job title) who worked nearly 1,000 overtime hours in the month. 983 hours.
• The 25 support service workers (housekeeping and dietary) worked more than 600 overtime hours in the month
• Even doctors and social workers were doing overtime, as were employees represented by other unions, including a substantial number of registered nurses, security employees and tradespeople.
Lack of staff has also led to:
• The closure of one of Madden’s five units
• The use of more than 20 expensive agency nurses while trying to hire RNs.
• Sometimes no security staff on site, or just one, during weekend shifts. At other times, mental health technicians are made to cover security officer vacancies.

Keeping new hires is a problem, too: Of a recent class of 11 mental health technicians, four alreafy left. Five new support service/housekeepers were promised in the spring; only two were hired and both quit. So far only one has been replaced.

It’s a difficult work environment and short-staffing makes it much worse.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Oct 26, 22 @ 8:59 am

Comments

Your subscriber poll in the previous post that is protected is a link to facebook not a poll.

Comment by oops Wednesday, Oct 26, 22 @ 9:07 am
Thanks, oops. It’s fixed.

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Oct 26, 22 @ 9:15 am
How much of this is the CMS / AFSCME “slow as molasses in January” hiring process? Haven’t been anywhere near the hiring process in a long time.

Comment by Anyone Remember Wednesday, Oct 26, 22 @ 9:31 am
When people here post about their current local weather and how it is affecting their environment (rain, drought etc.) it would be great if they would take a second to remind readers roughly where in Illinois they live. Thanks

Comment by Responsa Wednesday, Oct 26, 22 @ 9:34 am
sorry. I submitted the above post on the wrong thread. I meant it for the open thread. Oh well.

Comment by Responsa Wednesday, Oct 26, 22 @ 9:36 am
There are no quick fixes. You basically need to double the pay to get the necessary candidates to apply, then get through the normal state hiring process and hope they don’t all get hired to some private practice.

Teaching, nursing, social work, etc, were all systematically underpaid relative to their value to society because they were “women’s jobs.” We smugly said for decades that it should be a “calling” and you “shouldn’t do it for the money” when in reality we were just expecting women to work those jobs for significantly less pay than they could get if they were not socially prevented from working elsewhere.

As social norms changed, and women are now able to pursue all sorts of other careers (STEM, law, accounting, management, whatever), suddenly the captive work force that used to accept crap pay to do crap work isn’t there any more.

We just collectively refuse to admit reality, namely how important those jobs always were, how tough those jobs always were, and how little respect (and pay) we gave the people doing them.

Comment by Homebody Wednesday, Oct 26, 22 @ 9:42 am
Interesting. I often drive by Madden. It is, to not be too negative, not an attractive looking facility. Barbed wire atop high fences surrounds it. I had always assumed that it housed dangerously ill criminals (due to that). I believe there are also reminders not to pick up hitchhikers near it.
It is located right next to Hines VA & Loyola hospitals, meaning healthcare workers have other options if they tire of Madden.

I was surprised to find out it was not in Maywood, despite passing by their frequently. Loyola is for sure in Maywood and is right next door. Hines appears to be a little 8 sq block stretch of unincorporated terrain.

Comment by cermak_rd Wednesday, Oct 26, 22 @ 9:51 am
I used to go in the office every day (now remote) it is a facility that is surrounded by fencing and barbed wire with armed guards who patrol and access controlled gates for entry. Even though those are for the employees’ and their automobiles’ protection, that kind of physical plant makes for a less pleasant work day than say, a nice green, sunny office complex. As a result, my employer pays more $ to attract talent.

Comment by cermak_rd Wednesday, Oct 26, 22 @ 9:59 am
Hines is an unincorporated community bound by 1st Ave, Roosevelt Rd, 9th Ave, and the railroad tracks. Though the SW corner jumps over the tracks to include the ING building. Madden is on the NE corner of Hines.

Comment by DHS Drone Wednesday, Oct 26, 22 @ 10:03 am
Is it known how many staff members were laid off due to vaccine mandates?

Comment by Dupage Wednesday, Oct 26, 22 @ 10:15 am
There is a critical shortage of staff at every level from State Ops to Community MH Centers. Behavioral healthcare treatment staff are at historical low levels.

Comment by Give Me A Break Wednesday, Oct 26, 22 @ 10:32 am
@- Dupage - Wednesday, Oct 26, 22 @ 10:15 am:

===Is it known how many staff members were laid off due to vaccine mandates?===

Hi there. I have been using the nickname DuPage for a long, long time. Please add an additional word on to your nickname so we don’t get mixed up. (For example, there are other DuPage posters with nicknames like “DuPage Dad”, “DuPage taxpayer” or similar. Thank-you.

Comment by DuPage Wednesday, Oct 26, 22 @ 10:59 am
Were any laid off? There’s no mention of that.

Comment by The Velvet Frog Wednesday, Oct 26, 22 @ 11:32 am
Tier II is a disaster. The benefit of the State is not high pay, but good benefits. If you have neither, why join the State?

Comment by Lurker Wednesday, Oct 26, 22 @ 11:42 am
It’s not just tier 2. New hires start on substeps. So they all start at 1C now. If you have the education and training to take one of these facilty jobs, you can probably make more elsewhere. Though you are guaranteed to get a lot of OT. Though that fact turns many off. Not everyone wants to step into a job where you know you will be mandated doubles all the time. Especially if you have little ones.

Comment by DHS Drone Wednesday, Oct 26, 22 @ 12:06 pm
Like I have said many times

Oompa Loompas make the chocolate, not Willy Wonka.

Twice as bad as Rauner in hiring
It’s Pritzkers CMS management strategy
To hold down costs
And bleed AFSCME.

This is the Pritzker perfidy

At some point the chocolate stops.
The workforce is collapsing

Comment by Honeybear Wednesday, Oct 26, 22 @ 1:18 pm
Substeps. Was that “gift” from Quinn or Blago? I think Quinn, but not certain.

Comment by Anyone Remember Wednesday, Oct 26, 22 @ 1:45 pm
Substeps came from the Quinn 2013 contract. Anyone hired after a certain point in 2013, is on substeps. During the last contract we added money to each substep that would increase slightly over time. To make em less horrible.

Comment by DHS Drone Wednesday, Oct 26, 22 @ 1:49 pm
One niece worked (tier 1) as a RN at the state home by Dwight for many, many years. Missed every Christmas, New Years, Easter, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and any other family holiday get-together. Not only was it mandatory for her to work those days, but once at work they would declare an “emergency” forcing her to double shift (total 16-hour day) and usually have to return the next day. She would usually have a couple of the 16-hour days and/or cancelled days off every 2 weeks. They had a high turnover rate; the nurses were just burned out. When she gave them notice she was leaving, another nurse also decided to leave. Within a few days, 2 new nurses were hired and worked with the ones who were leaving to learn the job as much as they could in a couple of weeks.

Why? Why does the state treat their nurses so poorly by this understaffing? Why don’t they hire additional nurses and let the nurses have reasonable hours. The state could pay for more nurses out of the money they would save on the reduced overtime.

Comment by DuPage Wednesday, Oct 26, 22 @ 3:30 pm
I didn’t need an informational picket to know there is a staff shortage. It is reality in every for-profit, nonprofit and government place where people work.

Comment by KeepItReal Wednesday, Oct 26, 22 @ 3:37 pm
I find this most interesting. I was hired at the beginning of the pandemic to assist at this location. Let me tell you the staff treated us like garbage. They had numerous petitions to try to get us removed as we were taking their overtime. Happy to see they got their wish. Best thing that can happen is all new staff because the long timers there treat the patients like animals. It’s despicable.

Comment by Agency Girl Wednesday, Oct 26, 22 @ 10:45 pm