The winter poll asks, “Would increasing mental health workers’ wages improve mental healthcare for consumers?” The question uses the lens of the consumer to consider the widely reported labor shortage among Vermont’s community mental health centers and inpatient psychiatric units, which struggle to offer high enough wages to recruit and retain employees.

How should psychiatric survivors feel about the well-being of a workforce that has caused them harm, including, sometimes, in community settings? Should legislators do more to alleviate high turnover and staffing shortages that exacerbate the problems of an already flawed system, or are oppressive structures better left to crumble? Can mental health workers and survivors find solidarity in each others’ struggles, or does the presence of coercion preclude such an alliance?

Please fill out the form below. For more information contact: counterpoint@vermontpsychiatricsurvivors.org.