wellness specialist

clinician

psychiatric nurse

case manager

specialist

Bridgeway Behavioral Health Services

What is the best part of working at the company?
Better pay than other mental health facilities

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Constant driving. Dealing with angry, intoxicated clients. Relentless paperwork that if you are 1 minute late, you are in trouble. Lack of direct supervision. Making ‘units of service.’

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
You do not spend enough time with co-workers as you are always “out in the field.”  You drive to meet clients either in their place of residence or in the community and transport to appointments all over the county. You repeat this throughout the day to accumulate units of service and need to get so many every day. The company wants you to write your progress notes while you are with the client/consumer but do not understand that this takes away from interactions with them. You may drive a 1/2 hour to pick someone up at their residence and they may not be there, so therefore, it is nearly impossible to get your required units of service. You spend more time than your scheduled time(some days 2-3 hours more) and it is not appreciated.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Schedule who you will see that day and drive to meet them and take to scheduled appointments, doctor visits, grocery shopping,apartment hunting, and other community services. You are potentially driving all over the county many days. You are on your own(no other team members) about 90% of the time. Write progress notes following a specific template on everyone you saw that day. You record how much time you spent with each person so that your units of service are calculated properly. Most days, I personally had to write progress notes when I arrived back home.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The people at the Bridgeway were heartwarming, compassionate, and followed all the UHS policy and procedures. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The hours and volume of patients needing help and assistance was overwhelming . Little Rock has a large population who are homeless, addicted to drugs/alcohol, & large population of children needing child protective service placement.  I loved coming to work at the Bridgeway every day. That place changed my life and they took a chance on me because my background prior to working at the Bridgeway was primarily PACU, preop, operating room travel nursing and utilization RN review for Blue Cross Blue Shield. The Bridgeway made me feel like I was a part of a family and I'll never forget them. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
They treated me like family & were extremely professional and patient with me as a new staff member. Management was very accessible and hands-on & allowed me to contact them even though I worked night shift. The Bridgeway treated me like family, trained me and taught me all the UHS policy & procedures. Management & the corporate staff taught me how to properly care for patients needing placement for mental health assistance. The culture was amazing. I made lifelong friends and colleagues that I will never forget working at the Bridgeway. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Fast paced, well organized, & compassionate for all patient care populations, including people of all ages struggling with schizophrenia, suicidal thoughts, detox, and also provided outpatient options as well.

I've been working here for about 6 years and overall I love working for our persons served, being there for the individuals who dont have family, we are their only family for alot of them. 

One of the negatives of this company is our lazy upper management,  especially Team Leaders, I've seen Team Leaders who do not complete their own IRP'S and have certain staff members complete and sign on their behalf their treatment plans, which is a no no,  only licensed LSW and who are Team Leaders should be signing IRP'S. I've seen Team Leaders give their sign in and password to fellow members of the team so they can sign fellow members IRP'S. No one says anything due to the fact that nothing will happen. 

Another negative is coworkers would have their own kids car seat in our company cars that we transport persons served,  which means they are using it for personal usage. 

Staff members using the $100 client assistance for personal usage, they would buy lunch for themselves and just put persons served initials on it and submit for reimbursement. There's a lot of foul things that go on,  which I have reported in the past but it goes unheard.  

Also Team Leaders who would take person's served to their own homes to help them move or clean their backyards which is totally unethical. I hope that one day the issues would get addressed.

If you are just beginning in the field, working at Bridgeway isn't a bad choice. But as you move up the ranks, when possible, expectations and responsibilities are continuously added to the point where doing all the tasks of you position is not possible. You will not have a 9-5 day in this agency. The expectations are unrealistic and it is sad to see that a company that once cared about their employees have expanded so much that they lost the ability to pay attention to what is going on beyond the reports of senior management. Senior management is hit or miss. Some are incapable and intolerable and there is often work place bullying by many directors. Work/life balance is very poor for middle management. You will be called every weekend and you will have no choice to respond no matter where or what you are doing. It becomes very hard to not incorporate work stressors into your life as you very often can not escape work even on vacation. You will not be able to complete your tasks, they will continue to pile on top of each other and then you will be given more work. Salary is slightly below state median.

Again, entry level positions are not bad here. I do not suggest staying or applying here is you have a masters and other options. If you have a RN, you can do much better elsewhere in all aspects.

Worked here for a while.  Interesting work and made some friends along the way, but leadership is lacking to say the least.  Meaning, the leadership did not practice what they preached and were in a bubble about the realities of mental health in today’s world.  Not mental health as described in a conference with a nice breakfast, but what we faced a counselors on a day to day basis in the field, such as drug use, severe MH, etc.

Expectations regarding Units of Service were quite achievable at one time, but due to a deficit the company found themselves in, continually increased, along with expectations of tasks outside of meeting with clients on a daily basis, many of which seemed to be busy work or were never followed up on.

How would a day go in this job?  I would arrive at the office prior to 9 am for our daily (eventually, due to COVID) weekly meeting.  Staff would all give updates on their clients and interactions/plans for the day.  Pick a work vehicle, drive to someone in Middlesex or Union county NJ, and attempt to meet with clients in a given area.  Some were hit or miss.  There were days where you would have very poor numbers due to clients in a particular location not being available.  Drivr back to the office and try to complete notes at your deks prior to leaving.  Hopefully comiserate with other understanding people at the job.

Bridgeway is an excellent agency for staff who are just starting out in the field of mental health, however the upward mobility is poor and the salary is less than competitive.  Vacation and sick time are good.  The agency is moving towards a more medical, corporate model and management expectations are unrealistic at times, making work/life balance poor.  Teams themselves can be wonderful with excellent co-workers whose relationships are forged by the unrelenting nature of the work.  The hardest part of the job is unrealistic expectations of management based on the agency expanding beyond its abilities and existing problems are ignored.  Upper management is amiable enough but appear to be unaware of issues at the line staff level.  Staff is often asked to provide services far beyond what is listed in a job description.  On call time is NOT compensated monetarily.  Persons served (clients) are enjoyable and the counseling work itself can be extremely rewarding.

Bridgeway is a good place to start your career in psych rehab. I have been with this company for many years on and off. If you enjoy working in a team setting, and want to get your feet wet this place is for you. Be prepared to put in the work though. This work is not for the faint of heart and over time it may take a toll on you. Because the work is so intense there is quite a turnover rate. Some people are fresh out of school and need a place to start, some come to fill in some time and some just plain burn out. The agency is fee for service and it seems as if numbers are now a driving force instead of the people we are providing a service to. There's nothing wrong with that and I am aware many organizations are making that transition but for myself, it's time to go and move on to something new. I work with a decent team and found the work to be rewarding most of the time. There is not much room for advancement unless you are willing to transfer or travel.

Staff was always in your business and gossip about old staff. I am now working for a new company and have a client who said that the staff at Bridgeway say negative things about me. Management was good, but the co-workers were too much involved in people's personal lives. the salary for a masters degree was 35k, in NJ no one could live off of that. Upon hire they agreed to be flexible with my school schedule, once I started working they didn't uphold this promise. I was constantly late for classes and I left after 6 months. Glad I did, professionals shouldn't discuss staff business especially after they left because this field is too small and the information will get around. 

also if you leave without giving them notice (you have to give more than 2 weeks notice if you have been employed with them for more than 3 months- so if you worked for 3 months you have to give them 3 months notice OR you will not be able to use them as a reference which they make very clear in orientation)

As someone who has worked with a few agencies who serve the same population, I will say that Bridgeway was the most disorganized yet asked the most of their employees. Upper management is mostly horrible and seem to constantly be in fear. This culture of fear and cookie cutter interventions as well as excessive paper work and endless other responsibilities with little support from upper management resulted in me leaving my position after 6 months as this job negatively effected my quality of life and my wife noticed my stress level was far too high. I do not recommend working for Bridgeway.

Im a former employee and I will say there is room to grow in this agency. They are open to ideas and provid. Employees with an abundant of training to help you grow.  What I disliked was that once you completed the training you were almost seen as the guru and would have to train others even though you have not mastered that specific area of training. Sometimes you would do more than required of your job description and would leave an hour or two more than once to complete paperwork. Clients appeared to have too much freedom in the sense they were at times able to get away with treating staff poorly. The salary was low but I guess the bonuses made up for that

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Wellness specialist 36 salaries reported	$46,236 per year
Clinician 24 salaries reported	$62,289 per year
Psychiatric nurse 15 salaries reported	$86,483 per year
Case manager 9 salaries reported	$48,232 per year
Specialist 11 salaries reported	$55,364 per year

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