On Wednesday, December 13, State lawmakers held a hearing to investigate the lack of beds for mental health patients and the spike in assaults on staff members at the state’s largest psychiatric hospital. The hearing was prompted by an article in The Baltimore Sun that detailed the increase.
The article, which quoted members of Council 3, showed that assaults on staff at Spring Grove Hospital Center in Catonsville nearly doubled from the last six months of 2016 to the first six months of 2017. The state is under a court order to hire more staff for the facility by the end of the year.
AFSCME members Timothy Bolden from Eastern Shore Hospital Local 770 and Scott Hanekamp from Thomas B. Finan Center Local 611 testified today in Annapolis about the lack of beds and unsafe conditions for patients and staff at state-run hospitals and mental health facilities. We won't stop fighting for safer working conditions and quality care for patients!
You can watch a recording of the testimony on the General Assembly of Maryland website. AFSCME members' testimony begins at the 1:26:10 mark.