Monterey County behavioral health and social workers hold rally over staffing vacancies

SALINAS, Calif. (KION-TV)- On Monday- Monterey County behavioral health and social workers rallied and unveiled a vacancy report outlining the staffing crisis impacting the County of Monterey.

SEIU-521 which represents county social and behavioral health workers said about 700 vacancies exist at this time.

"Since 2022, I personally have been seeing such an increase in need for our community to receive these services and it's filling like a bit of a crisis." said Coral Ovalle, a social worker for the County of Monterey.

Ovalle is a social worker who said the "crisis" is getting worse. SEIU-521 said vacancies increased from 422 in July 2020 to 713 in July 2023.

Some of the departments the union said are struggling include Health and Clinics, Social Services and Emergency staffing. Maia Carroll who is the County of Monterey Communications Coordinator told KION in a statement that temporary workers are filling some of the vacancies for now.

"The County of Monterey has 6,077 authorized positions, 5,704 active employees. It is also good to understand that not all vacancies mean an employee loss. Some positions are ones that departments want and keep open until there is money to fill them."

County of Monterey Communications Coordinator Maia Carroll said in a statement

Carroll points to the tight labor market over the past three years. County officials said the labor market and wage competition are not the only drivers of staffing challenges.

"Many public sector occupations had a dwindling pipeline of new entrants long before the pandemic including those in the mental health field, social work, law enforcement and law," Carroll said in a statement. "The pipeline has not fully recovered from the pandemic."

County officials said services for people will not get impacted because of the vacancies.

And for the employee union, Ovalle hopes the county can work with them to find a solution.

"We want to work together and collaborate and address this ongoing issue," said Ovalle.

Union workers said they'll rally again on Tuesday morning at 7:30 a.m. at 730 La Guardia Street in Salinas.