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Low Staffing

Many psychiatric treatment and residential units have deplorable levels of staffing. In several mental health facilities it is not unusual to find only one staff on duty per shift. How is it possible to meet the varied needs of residents with psychiatric disabilities with only one person in charge? The answer is that it isn't. This situation is almost a guaranteed recipe for staff burnout. In some facilities the workers are paid a reasonable living wage. These workers are almost always unionized. The problem is that these residential units will have the worst staffing situations as their employers will state that they can't afford any additional staff. I sometimes wonder how much benefit the unions are actually giving the workers in these cases. Yes, the workers are getting paid a living wage bu at what cost to their health and well being. The other situation that I have seen is where there is a better staff to client ratio but each worker is being paid a poverty level wage. These facilities are usually not unionized. Neither alternative is acceptable. The workers need to be paid a reasonable,living wage and they deserve to have adequate staffing levels. If this were the case not only would the workers benefit but so would the clients.
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