Thank you to those who attended last week's "End UC's Two-Tier Care System: A Behavioral Health Equity Town Hall" event at San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center's Building 3 - Carr Auditorium.

Your participation is instrumental in driving the fight for fair compensation and ensuring that our community's most vulnerable continue to receive the essential services they depend on. UCSF Health's inequity in pay and respect devalues the essential frontline work that keeps our at-risk populations afloat. The consequences brought on by UCSF Health, such as burnout, understaffing, and longer client wait times, affect us all.

Together, we made it clear that the disparities in pay and treatment for UCSF Health campus clinical social workers must be addressed. Your support strengthens our collective call for change. As Juliette Suarez, a campus clinical social worker at UCSF Health's Trauma Recovery Center, highlighted during the town hall, "When we can't keep our clinics staffed to meet patient demands due to pay disparities and lack of funding, these survivors are left without the care they desperately need. Should we accept that a hospital system with billions in the bank chooses to perpetuate the under-resourcing of already under-served patients?"

We also want to thank Aaron Peskin, the president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Supervisor for District 3, and 2024 San Francisco mayoral candidate, for attending and speaking with us on ending UC's two-tier care system. “Public safety is the work that you do, and I want people to be in these jobs for the rest of their lives,” reiterated Supervisor Peskin. “These are the frontline workers who are there day in and day out in very, very tough conditions. If these people leave these jobs, it is just going to exacerbate the spiraling problem that we have on our streets.”

Let's continue to push for equity. We will keep you updated on the next steps and how you can stay involved.

Thank you again for your dedication and advocacy.