Pros
1. Working in an under-served community. 2. Seeing the impactof mental health services make a direct and beneficial impact on clients and their lives. 3. Team members are supportive and the collective hive mind has your back.
Cons
1. low pay/salary 2. out dated practices: clinical staff clock in/out for lunch; physical exam part of pre-employment process, signing each page of employee handbook as proof of reading it but you can't get a copy of it. 3. CEO unaware most matters. 4. 7.5 hours of productivity required each day, and 24 hour turn around on notes results in completing notes during lunch or while talking with clients. 5. Complaints and needs are addressed to supervisors but there are no solutions; clinical staff have left due to poor follow-up on ethical concerns from Inpatient and/or outpatient units. Administrative supervisor(s) don't reach out to clinical supervisor to address matters during individual or group supervision. 6. Plans are made (i.e., new construction) but timeline is not provided to staff to know what to expect related to parking and office availability. 7. No communication from management to staff about solutions (i.e. how to manage combative clients, staff safety, changes to COVID procedures, ethical issues, legal issues). 8. Insufficient staff for departments: Inpatient, outpatient, and field based. 9. Referrals aren't turned away, further burdening staff who are struggling with shrinking departments: long wait list for therapy, therapists able to see clients 1xmonth; clients wait 3-4 months for initial psychiatric evaluation. 10. Majority of Adult and Children outpatient is still telehealth or telephonic. 11. Failure to hire quickly means potential staff leave for other jobs: program managers, AMFTs, ACSWs, case managers, etc. 12. There's been no child/adolescent psychiatrists on staff since early 2022. The children's department is having the CMO and adult Inpatient psychiatrist step in. 13. There's one LCSW providing group and individual supervision to ACSWs and management doesn't let all associate clinical staff participate in both group and individual supervision, so some of my colleagues don't get to count all their hours for the week.