Monday, August 18, SEIU 1021 members at San Francisco General Hospital’s Behavioral Health Center (BHC) showed up at the SF Civil Service Commission meeting at City Hall to speak out against the SF Department of Public Health’s request for funding for a contract that would privatize the BHC’s services. Thanks mostly to 1021 members’, staff’s, and residents’ comments to the commissioners, they voted to table the proposal until the September meeting for more time for both sides to discuss and improve the plan.

The 83 current residents of the Residential Care Facility for the Elderly (RCFE) and the Adult Residential Facility (ARF) at the BHC would be displaced and their care disrupted by SFDPH’s plan. These residents are seniors and adults living with severe mental illness. Many cycled between private board and care facilities for years or even decades before landing at the BHC and finding stability, mostly due to the dedicated and highly skilled staff who have built trust with them and are attentive to their needs. Many of these residents also have complex physical health needs in addition to mental health, so the proximity to the hospital at the BHC has been very helpful to keeping them stable. 

SFDPH wants to convert the BHC into a fully locked psychiatric facility (currently, only the top floor is a locked facility) as part of Mayor Lurie’s campaign promise to open 1500 new “treatment and shelter beds.” In order to do that, however, the City wants to move the BHC’s current residents into new buildings it has purchased on Laguna Street and contract with a private provider for their care. This move and change of care staff would be a major disruption to the hard-won stability of these residents. It is already causing many of them intense anxiety, and should it actually happen the way the City plans, could lead to many of them falling back into a cycle of psychiatric emergency services and homelessness.

“According to available evidence, life expectancy of patients with chronic and severe mental illness in the general population is 10-20 years with an average life expectancy of 64.7 years,” said RN Sarah Clark, who has worked at the ARF for eight years, during public comment. ”The average age of an RCFE resident is 71 years old and we have five who are in their 80s. It is undeniable that the staff of the board and cares play a huge role in our residents beating the odds. I’ve seen urinary tract infections, respiratory illnesses, heart disease, cancer, and more be caught early because our staff have been with the residents so long and know them well enough that they’re able to notice subtle changes when something is amiss. The residents also trust our staff enough to tell them when something is wrong, which is a huge accomplishment for both the residents and staff.”

“My major concern is outcomes for residents,” said Darren Page, who has worked at the RCFE since it opened and has been at the BHC for over 20 years. ”We have drivers that help them get to appointments. We have escorts who help them navigate their appointments—which building to go to, which office to go to, how to navigate the system—things I don’t believe they’d be able to do on their own. We have a 90% success rate in getting people to go to their appointments. Private board and cares do not provide the services we do. We have residents on our floor who have been there for more than 10 years. This kind of stability is really unheard of. I know from working in the building the third floor sub-acute facility has been half-empty for two or three years. Where are all these residents going to come from to fill up a whole two more floors?” 

SEIU 1021 is asking that, if the BHC’s residents must be moved to the Laguna Street facilities to convert the current building, that current BHC staff move with them to ensure continuity of services and the continued stability of the residents. However, SFDPH maintains that the services at the Laguna Street facilities should be provided by private contract because such privatized services already exist in San Francisco. The fact remains that their proposal would privatize services that are currently public, to the detriment of the 83 residents of the BHC.

The commissioners were moved by the SEIU 1021 members’ and staff’s comments and passed a motion to put off approving the contract for the privatized services until at least the September 16 meeting. We will continue to fight for the well-being of the BHC’s residents and to keep these highly successful services performed by skilled permanent civil servants.

Sign the community petition to protect the ARF and RCFE here!