Workplace safety update: UCSF workplace safety survey & meeting with DPH Director Daniel Tsai
We are writing to share updates on our ongoing demands for safety, accountability, and transparency for UC and UPTE-represented workers who provide care in San Francisco Department of Public Health (DPH) facilities, including UC San Francisco-affiliated outpatient and behavioral health settings. As part of this work, we are asking members to complete a confidential Workplace Safety Survey, which will inform our advocacy with UCSF and DPH leadership and strengthen worker- and patient-centered safety improvements.
In addition, UPTE members recently met with SFDPH Director Daniel Tsai and UCSF leadership to convey staff concerns, share frontline experiences, and clarify expectations for concrete safety measures. We will outline key takeaways from that meeting below.
Action requested: Please complete the UCSF Workplace Safety Survey
Trigger warning: This confidential survey asks about experiences of assault, threats of violence, sexual assault, harassment, and other sensitive topics.
UPTE is launching this confidential survey to better understand how UCSF staff in outpatient behavioral health settings have faced unsafe working conditions. As we advocate for worker- and patient-centered models for safety improvements, collecting data on prior safety incidents and how management handled them will be extremely valuable. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey here.
Confidentiality details:
The respondent's contact information will be shared with organizers on a separate sheet from the responses, ensuring confidentiality while we track the total number of respondents.
Any published results will be summary statistics only and will not include personal identifiers.
If you have questions, want to share additional context, or are interested in joining a site-specific safety committee, please reply to this email.
Update: Meeting with DPH Director Daniel Tsai
Following direct advocacy by staff at San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center's HIV Clinic at Ward 86, UPTE social workers met with DPH Director Daniel Tsai alongside UC labor leadership. Ward 86 social workers provided key insights into patient and staff safety while emphasizing that current safety concerns stem from longstanding systemic failures. Workers emphasized that safety measures in DPH settings must apply equally to all UC workers. Director Tsai committed to ensuring that all UC staff working at DPH sites will have access to:
A written protocol for escalation/violence scenarios, including clear roles, reporting/escalation steps, and response procedures.
Site-specific protocols tailored clinic-by-clinic.
A 24/7 threat escalation hotline that connects to a live person, plus on-site security manager coverage for urgent situations.
Physical safety upgrades (weapons detection processes, working cameras, functional duress buttons/notification review, and access/egress improvements).
Daily safety huddles and site-based safety committees that UC staff can join.
These steps—of which you can read more in detail here—describe planned changes, but plans alone are not enough. What matters is real implementation that frontline workers can see and feel in their day-to-day work. We will track implementation and provide updates as they are available.
Our immediate priorities are to ensure frontline staff are meaningfully included in the rollout of any safety changes; to end two-tier behavioral health compensation, which fuels turnover, vacancies, and instability—and undermines access, continuity, and safety; and to secure increased leave and meaningful, non-punitive mental health support for Ward 86 staff following the tragic loss of our colleague.
With care,
Juliette Suarez, LCSW
Clinical Social Worker 2, UCSF Trauma Recovery Center
UPTE Behavioral Health Unit Representative
