COSTA MESA : Workers at Fairview Protest Cuts in Staff

About 15 state employees picketed outside the Fairview Developmental Center on Wednesday to protest what they consider inadequate staffing levels at the state’s seven facilities that house developmentally disabled patients.

Sponsored by the California Assn. of Psychiatric Technicians, which represents more than 750 employees at the Fairview center, the protest was the third in a series of demonstrations aimed at increasing public awareness of what the group calls a “serious health problem.”

“We deal with very delicate clients that need intense supervision and care,” said Jay Salter, president of the state association. “We are unable to give that kind of care because there just aren’t enough bodies to do so.”

The association members complain that they are routinely forced to supervise as many as 14 clients--and sometimes more--at a time by themselves, and often work 12- to 16-hour days because of state budget cuts that drastically reduced the number of technicians at each center and allowed vacant technician positions to remain unfilled.

The association also stressed that its complaints were directed toward “Gov. Deukmejian and the state Department of Finance and not the Fairview administration.”

“We are certainly in agreement with their stand,” said Bamford Frankland, deputy director of the state Department of Developmental Services. “The state’s budget cuts have left us with an extremely tight situation that we hope will be corrected with the new fiscal year.”

State Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim) and Assemblyman Nolan Frizzelle (R-Huntington Beach) were invited to the protest but did not attend.

Earlier this year, the state laid off 400 temporary workers at developmental centers, 80 of whom worked at Fairview.

“I’ve worked at Fairview for about 12 years and have witnessed the steady decline in the amount of care and attention we are able to give,” said psychiatric technician Paul Jacobs of Orange. Jacobs said he fears being injured while working alone with the patients.

“There are times when I am alone and have to lift a client that weighs more than I do,” Jacobs said. “It is reasonable for two people to do it for the worker’s safety and the client’s. . . . There are many injuries that result from that type of thing or from when clients fight with one another and you have to break it up by yourself.”

Concerns about patient care have been fueled by recent state investigations into several patient deaths attributed to negligence at the developmental centers. The last of 14 statewide public hearings on the state’s care of the mentally retarded is scheduled for Feb. 23 in Tustin.

Several incidents in which patients were left unattended at the Fairview center were detailed in a report by the state Department of Health Services licensing and certification division after a recent inspection. The center was also criticized for its lack of programs geared toward teaching the patients independence.

Fairview employees say cutbacks resulted in the discontinuance of many programs that were meant to teach patients how to better care for themselves.

“Because of these problems, we really aren’t able to give them what they need,” Jacobs said.

The association plans to hold protests at each of the seven development centers and will demonstrate next in Porterville in Tulare County.