Five years after a report highlighting Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s difficulties in hiring and retaining employees in mental health care positions, the agency “continues to struggle” with that problem, according to an IG report.
The ICE Health Service Corps provides medical and mental health care at 21 of the approximately 230 ICE detention facilities nationwide. It also contracts with detention facilities that employ their own staff or contract with local practitioners and uses local hospitals and other facilities to treat detainees whose mental health needs exceed a detention facility’s capability.
Management largely concurred with recommendations in the 2011 report to address difficulties in recruitment and retention, the latest report said, but some recommendations have remained open since that time.
The earlier report said, for example, that it is difficult to attract and retain psychiatrists at detention facilities in rural and remote areas and that the agency has to compete for providers against the public and private sectors for those with such skills. Those problems—common among agencies needing to fill positions in high-demand occupations—still remain, the new report said.
“As we reported in 2011, IHSC still cannot offer competitive salaries, especially for psychiatrists. In addition, ICE’s lengthy security clearance process continues to discourage candidates from waiting for an ICE offer once they receive other offers,” it said.
