MEDIA ADVISORY
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2025
CONTACT: Megan Othersen Gorman / [email protected] / (215) 817-5781
Nurses at Brooke Glen Behavioral Hospital in Montgomery County Have Been Working Under an Expired Contract for More Than 7 Months; They Will Picket TOMORROW, THURSDAY, MARCH 13TH to Call Out Owner UHS and Take Steps – Literally – to Show That Mental Health (and Mental Healthcare Professionals) Matter
Fort Washington, PA – 81 Brooke Glen Behavioral Hospital nurses have been negotiating a new contract for 9 months – and working under an expired contract for over 7 months. At the core of their concerns are quality of care issues like safe staffing, recruitment and retention of seasoned nurses, protections for caregivers, workplace violence prevention, and respect for the work they do – a “healing mission” for some of Montgomery County’s most vulnerable.
The nurses will be joined by elected officials, including state Senator Maria Collett, a nurse herself, and state Representatives Mary Jo Daley and Joe Hohenstein at an informational picket outside the hospital to call out owner United Health Services for disrespecting what they bring to the Brooke Glen patient community and for refusing to protect them against workplace violence.
Due to a “gag clause” in the nurses’ contract, they aren’t able to speak out about issues that affect patient care and employee retention without fear of retribution from their bosses at UHS. But they can use their feet.
An informational picket is an event that helps raise community awareness; the caregivers attending the informational picket are either off from work that day or on a break.
INFORMATIONAL PICKET
THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2025
| WHO | Nurses at Brooke Glen Behavioral Hospital |
| WHAT | Brooke Glen Behavioral Hospital caregivers have been providing inpatient psychiatric services to teens and adults for more than 40 years. Yet UHS management has fostered and prioritized a punitive work environment with no respect for the hard work they do for their patients and on behalf of the hospital. |
| WHEN | THURSDAY, MARCH 13TH
6:30 AM – 9:00 AM RALLY WITH ELECTED OFFICIALS AT 8:00 AM |
| WHERE | Outside Brooke Glen Behavioral Hospital, 7170 Lafayette Ave, Fort Washington, PA 19034. |
Brooke Glen Nurses Association is an affiliate of PASNAP, the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, which represents more than 11,000 frontline nurses and healthcare professionals across Pennsylvania and was founded 25 years ago on the belief that patients do better when critical care staff have a strong voice to advocate for their patients and themselves.
