Okay @ CA state government, what the FUCK are you on?
https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB408/2025
This bill rewrite is... several layers of fucked up and unfair to both healthcare workers struggling with substance abuse, and healthcare workers who are mentally ill or disabled.
A choice quote: "This bill would revise and recast those provisions and would instead authorize the board to establish a Physician Health and Wellness Program to support, treat, monitor, and rehabilitate physicians and surgeons and other professionals licensed by the board with impairing physical and mental health conditions that may impact their ability to practice their profession in a reasonably safe, competent, and professional manner."
You can't treat mental and physical health the same as substance abuse. They are different vectors and you approach them differently! (Also, side note, many people who want to talk on substance abuse *really* want to ignore the part where people often start using *because of inadequate healthcare and/or medication and/or pain management access*. We really have to address all sides if you want to address substance abuse.) Why are you writing this into a bill about specifically substance abuse, for one?
For two, mental health can be chronic. I would hope a healthcare worker with chronic mental health conditions would have access to meds/therapy/whatever to help stay stable—but in reality, it's *already* stupendously hard to get licensed if you have a mental health dx, and that's country wide if not world-wide.
Like people in residency asking if it'll fuck them over to seek treatment: https://www.reddit.com/r/Residency/comments/1ime0ph/is_it_true_that_seeking_mental_health_treatment/
Doctors during early pandemic *forgoing mental health care because they might lose their licenses*: https://www.aamc.org/news/doctors-forgo-mental-health-care-during-pandemic-over-concerns-about-licensing-stigma
This AMA article from July 2023 celebrating medical boards (including CALIFORNIA) being less invasive so healthcare workers can get mental health care mayhap: https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/physician-health/23-medical-boards-make-changes-support-physician-well-being
And now for the piece de resistance: a research paper on the high levels of mental health issues healthcare workers experience! https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11024831/
(Side note: Kentucky already has something like the above bill is proposing. South Carolina law is fucking prohibitive on this subject: you basically cannot be mentally ill or physically disabled or it's automatically physician misconduct, is how that reads to me. So uh. No.)
Shoutout to @camilla for the citation hunting. 💕💕
#CA #California #politics #statelevelpolitics #statepolicies #statepolitics #CApolitics #healthcare #healthcareworkers #mentalhealth
