BRENTWOOD — CSEA members who provide care for individuals with mental illness sometimes experience their own form of psychological stress due to the workers’ often-difficult tasks and the high levels of care that some of the individuals need.
Recognizing our members’ need for alone time during their shifts, our Pilgrim Psychiatric Center Local 418 Board approached center administrators about creating a decompression room.
“We felt that it would help our members to have a place where they can have their break that’s not around patients or on the ward,” said Pilgrim Psychiatric Center Local 418 President Arnold “Rashad” Jones. “Our members need a place where they can have a moment to themselves.”
“We may not be doing a lot of heavy lifting here, but mentally, we’re lifting cinder blocks,” said Jones. “We have to stay calm, make sure the patients don’t get hurt, make sure the patients don’t hurt each other and make sure we don’t get hurt all while getting patients to their activities.”
This unused patient recreation room will be the location for the new decompression room.
Our Pilgrim Psychiatric Center Local is working with the center’s administration to have the decompression room feature a sitting area, an area to watch television, new vending machines and potentially a kitchen. These features will be a welcome change for a campus that currently has no cafeteria for employees.
As it stands, our members get a 30 to 45-minute lunch break. If an employee is working in a location distant from the center’s parking lot, it could take 15 minutes just to get to your car.
“Sometimes, people forget their lunch,” said Pilgrim Psychiatric Center Local 418 Executive Vice President Christina Lebron. “We don’t have much time to leave the worksite to buy food. When the decompression room is complete, members will have an option that doesn’t involve using up all of your break time.”
The local hopes the new room, which they hope will be complete by the summer, will increase workplace productivity.
“In order to work in mental health, you have to maintain your own mental wellbeing,” said Jones. “You have to be in the proper mental state to complete assigned tasks successfully.”
Jones admits that the patients know when an employee is stressed out and ‘they feed off of it or manipulate it.’
Our Pilgrim Psychiatric Center Local encourages members to report any workplace violence they have experienced.
“Filing helps us build a paper trail that helps our local justify requests that will aid in the mental health of our members,” said Jones.
For their future plans, our Pilgrim Psychiatric Center Local is trying to designate an outdoor area for members to use during their breaks.
“We’re doing whatever we can to bring Pilgrim into 2019,” said Jones.
— Wendi Bowie
