Psychiatric Hospital Nurses Win Retirement Security in State Budget

PHOTO: Dorothea Dix nurse Scott Lockhart (MSEA-SEIU 1989)

For 28 years, Maine Service Employees Association (MSEA-SEIU 1989) member Scott Lockhart has worked as a nurse at Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center (DDPC) in Bangor with some of the most severely mentally ill patients in the state. Some of those patients are voluntarily receiving mental health treatment, while others have been involuntarily committed by the courts for committing serious crimes.

On May 3, 2023, Lockhart gave an impassioned testimony to the Maine Legislature’s Labor and Housing Committee in support of a bill (LD 1761) sponsored by then-Senate President Troy Jackson that would provide nurses at Dorothea Dix and Riverview Psychiatric Center in Augusta the same retirement benefits as law enforcement, first responders and corrections officers, in recognition of the risks they take every day on the job.

“I have been thrown to the floor, punched in the face, kicked, bitten, spit on, choked and also exposed to verbal assaults (life threatened, threats to my family etc.) during my years here at DDPC, while working 12-hour night shifts and every other weekend,” wrote Lockhart.

Lockhart told the committee that some of his coworkers had developed post-traumatic stress disorder due to the stressful nature of their work. Others left the field entirely after being injured by patients while trying to provide a safe and therapeutic environment for them. He argued that mental health workers deserved to be eligible to retire with dignity at age 55 with 25 years of service. After all, psychiatric nurses work with many of the same potentially dangerous individuals as law enforcement, corrections officers and first responders who qualify for those retirement benefits under the 1998 Special Plan in the Maine Public Employees Retirement System (MainePERS)

“I realize that you can encounter these things in my type of employment, but after years of enduring them (as they can happen at any time) there comes a time when you can`t keep going and you look forward to a time when you can do something else in your life safely while you still can, being mentally or physically able to so,” Lockhart said.

Jackson’s bill was never funded, but finally after years of organizing and lobbying the MSEA nurses won the special retirement plan in the most recent supplemental budget signed by Governor Janet Mills on April 10. The new budget funds LD 579, sponsored by Senator Mike Tipping (D-Penobscot), which adds nurses at the two state psychiatric hospitals to the 1998 Special Plan. At 55 years old, Lockhart will finally be able to retire on November 1 after a nearly 30-year career at Dorothea Dix.

“Normally I wouldn’t be able to retire until I turn 62 to avoid penalties. Under our previous retirement plan, I would lose 42 percent of pension if I took retirement now because I would have received a 6 percent penalty for each year I left early,” said Lockhart. “So with this bill passing, it allows nurses our age or have over the 25 years of service to leave without the penalty and to keep our health insurance.”

The new law builds on a measure passed by the Legislature last year that added certain mental health workers at the two psychiatric hospitals to the Special Plan. Other workers added to the plan in the budget this year were Bangor Airport firefighters and Chief Medical Examiner employees

“It just makes sense to be able to retire somewhat healthy,” said Lockhart. “Seeing nurses come in now in their 60s and even 70s, when they’re dealing with sometimes aggressive males or females, anything can happen.”

Most importantly, he said, the new retirement will help recruit and retain qualified staff to do this critical work.

“To work in a field like this with potential for injury and the stress that comes with that serving patients with mental illness and some with criminal backgrounds makes it a tough profession to stay in for 35-40 years or more,” said Lockhart. “So being able to retire after 25 years of service or 55 years of age really is beneficial to us now and for others to come.”