California is being celebrated as the best state in the country for maternal mental health. At the very same moment, UC San Diego is pushing out the specialized mother-physicians who make that care possible — and putting their patients at risk.
California Is Leaping Forward
In just over a month this spring, California sent an unmistakable message that maternal and perinatal mental health is a priority:
- April 29, 2026 — First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom and statewide leaders, including California Surgeon General Dr. Diana Ramos, convened to confront the perinatal mental health crisis, which affects roughly one in three California women. The gathering was held at one of only five perinatal inpatient psychiatric units in the entire country. (gov.ca.gov)
- May 8, 2026 — Governor Newsom launched the Golden State Start program, a first-in-the-nation initiative providing free diapers to every newborn in California, in partnership with Baby2Baby. (gov.ca.gov)
- June 1, 2026 — California was ranked #1 in the nation for supporting maternal mental health by the Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health. California earned the highest grade of any state — a B+ — and no state earned an A, a reminder that even the leader still has ground to make up. (gov.ca.gov)
Meanwhile, at UC San Diego
UC San Diego’s Department of Psychiatry adopted a policy requiring providers to hold a large share of their appointments for UCSD — reported as 60% for current faculty and MSP staff physicians and 80% for new hires — while sharply restricting outside practice. In effect, it pressures the very part-time arrangements that many mother-physicians rely on: move to full time, or leave.
These are among the most specialized clinicians in the system — the people who provide reproductive and maternal mental health care. As their own colleagues and union (UPTE) have warned, the policy disproportionately impacts women and mothers in academic medicine, and it threatens to drive experienced providers out the door. Patients are feeling it already: some in active psychiatric care have been told to transfer on a five-week timeline, with no clear transition plan.
So at the exact moment California is investing in mothers’ mental health, one of its flagship health systems is dismantling the work-life arrangements that keep skilled mother-physicians in practice — and breaking continuity of care for the patients who depend on them.
The Timeline: A Promise in Writing, Then a Five-Week Clock
Line up the dates and the problem is easy to see.
- November 29, 2025: UC San Diego’s health-equity report to California is due, and in that report the administrators promise the state a “seamless” transition between care settings, with a follow-up visit within 7 to 10 days for patients at high risk. (State filing, HCAI ID 106374141)
- February 5, 2026: They update that same report, and the promise is still on the record.
- April 2026: A few weeks later, the leaders of UCSD’s Department of Psychiatry move to push out the director of the Women’s Reproductive Mental Health Program on a roughly five-week clock, and they turn down her request for 13 months to move her patients safely.
They made that promise to the state in writing, and then they did the opposite to the patients the promise was meant to protect.
UC San Diego Should Move With California, Not Against It
We are asking UC San Diego Health to suspend the five-week transfer timeline, retract or revise this policy, guarantee a written continuity-of-care transition plan, and work with patients and clinicians on equitable alternatives — especially for the women and mothers this policy hits hardest.
In crisis? Call or text 988, or the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline at 1-833-852-6262. This website does not provide medical advice and is not a substitute for emergency care.
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