Downtown Mental Health Team Open to Wellness Program Shift

Downtown Mental Health Clinic, a county facility in Downtown Los Angeles, has almost completely transformed to a Wellness Program already and as part of that process SEIU Local 721 and DMH management met on Dec. 17, 2008, to open a dialogue over proposed changes to DMHC’s current traditional model. Here’s what we learned:
•    This proposal does not cut any positions or affect current teams and duties. Support staff duties will remain the same but they will use different codes for billing.
•    Clinicians will have different billing protocols that will conform to the Wellness Center model.
•    DMH will create a small Field Capable Clinical Services (FCCS) team in addition to the Wellness program. There may be some support staff who will be asked to move there on a voluntary basis.
•    The criteria for clients going into the Wellness center will be the same as now at DMHC. The clients will go through the Crisis Resolution Service (CRS) and remain in these services for 60 days. At the end of 60 days, if the clients are fine to return to the community they will then move to a contracted Wellness site, Full Service Partnership (FSP), or will remain in the proposed DMHC Wellness program.
•    Existing groups running in the clinic will not be affected and there are possibilities to add more groups.
•    Management acknowledged that there is not enough space to meet with clients at times and that DMH has looked into better utilization of space at the clinic.
Through the meeting we accomplished:

•    A plan to launch a regular labor-management meeting after the transition to effectively work on any potential issues that may come up at the beginning of the transition.
•    SEIU Local 721 members discussed having Mental Health Coaches focus on this transition as a potential DMH best practice in clinics.
•    Members won agreement from management to offer additional Wellness trainings.
“In terms of functioning, not a great deal is going to change. The funding source is more stable and with more stability may come better negotiating power.”
— Dirk Kirken, Senior Psychologist
“Support staff duties will not change other than a click of a mouse on the funding source.”
— Lona Brown, Intermediate Clerk
“This is very good. We all want this to be a viable clinic. This transition is about saving and securing jobs under MHSA funding.”
— Randi Alpern, Recreation Therapist II.