Dear Mr. Pezzoli,
About four or five weeks ago, after being employed for over 14 years, I quit my job with Norfolk Community Services Board (NCSB). This was not something that I easily did. I have been working emergency services (ES) for over 18 years, prior to Norfolk I worked in Virginia Beach for over three and one half years.
I will spare you the details of how poorly the workers in Norfolk have been treated over the past several years, and get to the point of this letter. The catalyst for my saying enough is enough came when NCSB violated the code by entering into some type of agreement with Sentara Norfolk General Hospital (NGH).
As I am sure you are aware, hospitals generally have their own evaluators who interview people in their emergency rooms (ER) who are thought to be having mental health and or drug/alcohol problems. Yes, these workers, who are employees of the hospital, work under the ER doctors. NGH referred to them as PERS workers. Frankly, not sure what the acronym stands for though I think its Psychiatric Emergency Response or some such thing.
Now, the NCSB ES workers are taking the place of the PERS workers. NGH has two psychiatric units that NCSB ES routinely detain people. There is a Gero Psych unit on the 6th floor and an adult unit on the 8th floor. The NCSB ES workers will not only do the evaluations for the hospital, they will use that same evaluation, yes, the one that they were paid to do by NGH, to use with magistrates to obtain TDOs. Several weeks before I quit, I asked the Chief Magistrate in Norfolk, “Can they do this?” He stated, “Absolutely not.”
The ES workers had a mandatory NGH orientation. They were also told they had to get SNGH badges that state, as I best remember, SNGH Crisis Counselor PERS/NCSB. Regardless of what kind of legal shenanigans or contortions NCSB may have gone though, there is no way that the ES workers aren’t on some level employees, period. Additionally, it would seem to violate the no financial interest and so on.
I always mentioned to folks, that ES workers, in addition to doing evaluations, were there to also act as advocates for the mentally ill.
Regardless of what anyone says, the ES workers are employees of the hospital. The additional problem is that they, the ES workers, are now in conflict with the ER doctors who they seemingly working for.
One thing that I always stressed to the families who I worked with was that we (ES) had no affiliation with the hospital and so on….where has that now gone? The ES workers are now being forced to do things that they know they shouldn’t. The workers with licenses are also questioning the ethics of it all.
Lastly, even if folks in Richmond allow this to happen, for whatever reason, you all who are involved are definitely violating the spirit of the code.
I would appreciate greatly, a response to this letter.
Sincerely and respectfully, I remain
George (Callender)
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His response came quickly.
George,
Thank you for your email. We are looking into the matter. I will be back in touch with you.
John Pezzoli
No, I haven't heard anything since.
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