direct support professional

mental health case manager

case manager

mental health technician

qmhp

Association for Individual Development

I was excited for this position because I really wanted to gain experience in the mental health field and work with clients. It was great getting to know the clients and interacting with them. That is all obtainable at this job, but for me, the negatives and red flags outweighed the positives. The other reviews are accurate in saying there is high turnover. In the time I was there 3 MHPs had left. This is bad for other MHPs there because usually you will be there alone with 12-16 clients for possibly 6-8 hours. It is hard to truly help the clients and make change when this is the case. The 24 residential facilities are intended to be transitional, but many of the clients have been there 5-10 years or more. As an MHP, you don't really have power to change issues like this I noticed. When there is an issue with a client like them yelling/swearing at an employee, they are not held accountable by management which allows it to keep occurring. Clients are allowed to refuse meds/seeing a therapist and therefore many end up not getting the help they need. MHPs work 4 days, 10 hours. You work a paid lunch which means you can't leave and often are taking lunch while clients are in the office.

The clients are wonderful. Love working with them and supporting them. There is also good flexibility with hours during the week. That's where the positives of the job end. 

This company is TOP HEAVY. So many directors and vice presidents for every little thing but there is somehow still little to no support. QIDP's are given way too many hats to wear. Case loads max at 25 clients, but for each client you're handling medical appointments, state inquiries, finances, personal needs, incident reports, staffing concerns, behavioral concerns, etc....Then you're doing paperwork for them to make sure their benefits are kept along with state requirements being met. You have to communicate everything to guardians and directors. Directors expect you to respond to them in 20 minutes. You're expected to use your personal phone and get a $15 phone stipend, so guardians and state workers will call or text you at all hours. You're told your contract hours are until 5pm but if something comes up you'll still need to handle it. The work/life balance doesn't exist, and even then this position pays LOW for all the hats they make you wear. You will be written up for little things while other people can do horrible things and not even get a slap on the wrist. If you are a perfectionist, just know that you will never ever be caught up here and your best will never be enough either. 

STEER CLEAR

Between the different programs and locations, AID really does offer a wide variety of services, which leaves a lot of options when it comes to finding a job position that meets your interests. If someone is just starting out, it provides a lot of opportunities to learn new skills and gain experience. Following some staff departures and needed changes in management, the DeKalb program has really come back to life. The program shows a lot of great opportunities for growth which has to potential to create a wider reach throughout DeKalb County. Pay isn't the best, but is higher than a lot of similar agencies in the area and AID has been making more of an effort to show appreciation of staff. Like any social service job, the workload can be really overwhelming and the burnout rate is pretty high. It can be an emotionally demanding job, but the current team is really strong and you feel truly supported by your co-workers and management. There are definitely rough days, but following the recent changes it really does feel like a fresh start. Lots of exciting development to come!

Working as a Qualified Intellectual Disabilities Professional (case manager) for adults with disabilities has been a great learning experience. I have learned so much including leadership skills, working with others, being proactive, teaching clients, and coming up with new, innovative and creative ideas for our clients. 

A QIDP's job is to come up with goals for our clients in order to help them learn new life skills and to be as independent as possible. Also writing Implementation Strategies, keeping files, consents, and Personal Plans organized, as well as working directly with the clients. Being proactive is key when working with individuals with intellectual disabilities/autism.

The downside to this field is that there is not a lot of room for advancement, and due to it being a non-profit organization, the budget for the programs has been decreasing each year. Also, there is not a lot of job security, for transfers within the agency happen quite often. Also, there is many times that personal safety is put in jeopardy.

I might be happy at my job if they increased our pay and benefits and/or stopped asking for so much for so little pay. They’ve actually cut down the starting rate, and have had a lot of trouble hiring since then. I don’t blame people for not taking the job. Why get a Bachelors degree just to start off at $14-$16 an hour? You can get that pay at a fast food restaurant. We are constantly being thrown new “priority” tasks and deadlines and pressured to meet our billing quotas but also do the 1000 other “priority” tasks that are not billable. Everything is a “priority.” We can’t ever catch up on all our work. They know we are tired and burned out and all they do to “help” is send “mindfulness” emails. We are understaffed. They are aware people don’t take their job offers because of the low pay. The turnover rate is high. Yet, they won’t invest in their employees to keep us onboard and increase job satisfaction. 

This is the kind of job you should take if you have no other options. It is stressful and you will have no life because of the terrible schedule that you will be forced to work. When hired, you will be given a specific schedule, but because of the high turnover, you are going to be forced to work a mixture of day and night shift - which will effect both your physical and mental health because of how inconsistent your sleep habbits will become. You are paid very little, and criticized if you do not make your billing (it's all about the money). And management is two-faced, they seem sweet but are only accommodating if you are part of their list of favorite people. Very childish and vengeful behaviors in management

There are alot of new psychology grads thinking that they are going to use the skills learned in college, but sadly that's not the fact. You will just be a babysitter - helping people with laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning apartments, etc.

I worked for the Supported Living division of the behavioral health side of AID's services.  It was very demoralizing to be working in a position focused on recovery when none of my clients were really expected to improve.  I had the sense that I had been hired so that AID could say it was taking part in a progressive trend in mental health treatment, not because anyone in my division (other than the program manager, who was AWESOME!!!!) actually cared about the recovery model.  Plus, there was a lot of pressure on both me and the case managers to cram in as many billable hours as possible to fulfill AID's quota system, even when the clients didn't really want to see us that much or benefit very much from the services we could provide.  A lot of the time I basically served as a glorified taxi driver, and there wasn't all that much glory to it.

A typical day at work was marked by being busy with client. Working with client's APA, As a third shift staff i was scheduled to work on a one day second shift which was scheduled on Mondays. During this period I worked  with client fulfill their APA goals. After my daily contact with clients I will then write a billing of all my interactions with all the clients contacted. This experience was not only educational but a fascinating experience.
The management led by the program manager is purely based on teamwork,Full of diverse cultural staffs, our work is base on mutual respect and understanding. Mostly, at times staff work alone with 16 client and that was a bit difficult part of the job. However, there are many things enjoyable about the job, and one of it is bringing smile to clients by helping them accomplish their goals.

Overall good agency, there are some staff that work with the clients that genuinely care.

Hiring practices can be improved, they tend to hire everyone they interview, staff don't know their schedule, who their supervisor is, 
case load and responsibilities of QIDP, Directors and nurses is too much which adds to ineffective services and programming.

Would like to see parents and board members more involved and dig deeper into the services, hiring and practices of management.

The work day was full of crisis's that often were never resolved.
Poor training for  new staff, especially as a new director there was no direction given.  Trail and Error is not good when dealing with people's lives.

My job comes easy to me due to the fact that i truly enjoy working with this population of people.A typical day of work is simply providing normalcy in the everyday lives of people with disabilities, from learning to cook a meal to planning a community outing. i also budget money and ensure hygiene criteria is up to par just as i would myself. I have learned leadership skills, enhanced my compassion and appreciation for others. The management could be a little on the more professional side and my co-workers make the shift fun and go by smoothly. To be honest there really isn't a hard part of my job. It all just seems to come natural. The most enjoyable part of my job is knowing that i am making a difference in someone else's life.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Direct support professional 121 salaries reported	$19.12 per hour
Mental health case manager 39 salaries reported	$24.14 per hour
Case manager 10 salaries reported	$25.03 per hour
Mental health technician 3 salaries reported	$21.08 per hour
Qmhp 19 salaries reported	$25.93 per hour

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