direct support professional

licensed practical nurse

residential manager

caregiver

licensed vocational nurse

BrightSpring Health Services

I have been with this company for 5 years.  At first, I loved it because I love challenge.  I chose this job because I love to help people in need and I know that serving others is very rewarding.
Over the years we have had a large turnover with management and it became very unorganized and I was left with no support.  I'm a coordinator and there is no way to put in words exactly what we do.  We wear many hats.  We staff, process payroll for all direct care staff that report to our assigned clients, counsel the caregivers, deal with any and every problem that arise in the homes of our clients, coordinate all schedules that include a number or things such as doctor appointments, rescheduling, etc. and the list goes on.  Our office has been short staffed for around 2 years.  The job is not a typical 8a-5p office job.  It never ends.  If you are not in the office, you are on call.  WE are a 24 hour, 7 day a week company and we are held accountable to make sure that our clients are covered at their scheduled times.   We are constantly growing which is a good thing, however, ResCare does not "give" out increases in pay.  They only believe in increasing your workload.  The workload steadily increases with no support.  I work in a 5 coordinator office that has been running with 2 coordinators for the past 2 years.  They have attempted to hire 1 additional coordinator to relieve some of the workload.  WE are on our 11th coordinator to take that 3rd spot. The other 10 left due to the training that is provided which is next to none and on top of walking into a very busy office that appears to be unorganized due to management trying to learn what they are supposed to be doing.  The upper management wanted the 2 coordinators in the office to take on the responsibility of training the new coordinator.  That was impossible since we are trying to manage the case load that should be shared between 5 instead of 2.  It did not look good to the new coordinator because we were so busy managing our caseload that they felt we were not welcoming them to our team.  Between answering a 12 line phone, handling concerns/complaints, keeping up with documentation daily; there was just no time.

I believe that if they get the right people in this company will flourish.  I also believe that if they pay their people fairly that the people will go over and beyond and would remain loyal.

This company operates under contracted nursing.
The training is non-existent, "learn as you go" stuff. 
All fellow nursing employees I have liked and considered friends.
All fellow direct care staff I appreciated greatly for their care of the patients.
The patients are mostly very kind and you feel great taking care of them.

But:
Staffing is signifcantly lacking. Nursing teams that require 5-6 employees (per the company policy) have 2 maybe 3 on any given day. Some days you will be the only one in the office.
This of course makes efficiency a nightmare. You are always doing "other people's" jobs (task that do not fall under your scope per policy) because those task need to be done to do your job.

The companies you are contracted to work for are more than shady. 
Some companies tell their employees to lie about documentation and will actually broadcast to everyone via email, bragging about their false documentation. (Daily). 
Nursing process itself is a mess: 
The triage teams don't do their job (don't answer the phone or call back) or give improper care (wrong procedure for symptom), or don't document what they did until days later, which creates extreme risk for patient safety and your license.
There is medication documentation from untrained staff that is almost always wrong and repeated failure is never reprimanded with the contracted company because staffing is so poor they can't afford to take the chance. Which of course leads to more errors.
Nursing documentation is a nightmare, having to document virtually every minute and every interaction because of all the accusations the contracted companies receive.

The DON or head management is virtually never there or unresponsive.  Helping out with the nursing process is not a priority for them, never once did they help out with assessments or nursing care despite my department drowning in overwork and continually losing team members. Often letting people take vacations while understaffed for fear of losing those employees.

At the end of the day I can only repeat the words of my fellow nurses:
"Stay away, this company is not worth it" 


Clinical (Former Employee) –  Pueblo, CO – February 24, 2019
I have never felt so compelled to leave a review in my 20 years experience doing home health care. I worked for Abode Pueblo Colorado branch for 2.5 years and helped to build the clientele as clinical field staff. This branch was absolutely wonderful for 2 years with great leaders and a branch director in place. I have witnessed for the last 6 to 8 months how a few bad seeds can slowly destroy a wonderful great team. Good employees that started this branch were slowly ran off by bad behavior and bullying/retaliation from management. I really think that because our branch was doing so good, our supposedly sister branch wanted to ruin us...how bizarre does that sound? That is absolutely how it felt on the clinical side. Because of the great pay, and my the team members I had left and hope that we received from upper management, I hung in there as long as I possibly could. Bottom line with this company in my opinion: The owner was nice and I met him once when we were getting the branch going then never saw him or anyone again even while we were in a crisis mode. Our case conferences have been cancelled last minute and I cannot even count how many times that I had meetings scheduled in my day and it was cancelled or no one showed to conduct it, wasting an hour of my day. Absolutely no care or regard for clinician time with no apologies ever when this occurred. No team anything, no meetings to welcome new employees, no introduction for new team members. I didn’t even know when they hired or fired anyone. Absolutely no communication from upper management. I rarely met anyone that reached out through email and why would i trust them when there was no effort to come to our pueblo office once a month to help rebuild our team!?  I have no idea who my boss even was when i ended up quitting, which I have never done either in 20 years of doing home health care. These owners and management need to get a grasp on what has happened here. Very good employees did not deserve the experience Abode gave them!

First, I want to state that this job requires staff to come and work in a home where the clients live. I really enjoyed working with the clients. However, it was a sad experience. The clients were obviously sad and always unhappy because there was always drama between the staff, sometimes loudly, being displayed right in front of the clients. Rather than handle the drama, management would also get involved in the drama and everyone was mean and petty toward one another. People would dislike a staff, talk about them to everyone else and then conspire to get that staff fired. Many good staff were fired essentially over what started as drama with a coworker and escalated to their firing because they were set up by others who worked there and didn't like them. No one's job was ever safe because one day everyone would like someone and then the next everyone hated them. It would cycle around and managers were even targeted. It was more stress just knowing you had to go into work and work with these people than the actual job was. The poor clients were neglected at times because staff were too busy bickering amongst one another to care for the clients. It was awful to have to watch the clients suffer and to have to work with such heinous people. The management was terrible. On top of everything, they would often mess up people's paychecks. People who had been there for a while were complaining about not getting paid what they were supposed to be getting paid. Even the home office wouldn't handle the problems out there, nor would they fix people's paychecks when they complained. Thankfully they had a union so that people could file complaints and get their pay fixed, but it took months to fix the pay issues and you had to have worked out there for a while before you could even get union representation. I honestly wouldn't even give this job one star. It is the worst place I have ever worked, most unprofessional place EVER! I feel so bad for the clients who have to live there and deal with it constantly. It is not a place I would ever want a loved one to have to live.

I was hired to assist the current HR/Quality assurance coordinator, within a month of starting there she moved into a supervisor position and I was left up front alone doing a job that was at least a three person job. The phones rang off the hook constantly and the supervisors would just sit in their offices and let them ring or turn on the do not disturb, in addition caregivers were constantly coming in the office with needs. They would bring in caregivers to help in the office which made things more difficult because I was still trying to learn the job as well as training other people. I would tell the supervisors that I was drowning and was rarely offered help. In addition to answering phones and taking care of all of the caregivers who came in I was expected to hire new caregivers which includes a 3 hour orientation, schedule all of the training, make sure they wen and then reschedule them if need be and pay them for all of the hours they were in training, monitor and maintain 140 paper employee files, including keeping their licenses, credentials and car insurance were all up to date and that they were all in compliance with their continuing education and such. I also did payroll for anyone who came in the office as well as orientation and training hours...... What I'm saying is that it was a lot for 1 person to do. When my grandfather died I went to the "Branch Manager" to let her know when the funeral was and was told "Well you're not going if your payroll isn't done" I stayed 4 hours after my shift to finish it so i could go to my grandfathers funeral. I could go on and on and on. And then after   doing it virtually alone for a year they hired someone else, who knew nothing and then fired me. I was going through a separation, my son had just been suspended from daycare for behavioral problems that I was trying to get under control and it was my birthday. ResCare knows how to kick you when you're down. The Manager is in Silverdale and is rarely seen. I will say there are a couple of people in the office that were a lot better than others and the caregivers are wonderful as are the clients.

Go to group homes completing spot checks ensuring everything was being documented, medication given and documented correctly and cleaning completed.
Go to office to either complete support/behavioral plans, review for modification. Calling guardians at least once a week. Review charts making sure all medical needs are up to date. Then schedule any meetings, medical follow-up's, and training needed for staff, managers, or providers. 
Prep all needed information for any meetings scheduled.
Called to office for mandatory meetings if required. 
Reconciled all finances & receipts of individuals ensuring management is completing task appropriately and seeing to the needs and dreams of the individuals. 
If injury or incident occurs, complete a IFUR to the Indiana State Department if applicable. 
Go home and take calls from my assigned group homes if issues arise and resolve matters after hours. 
    In working at Rescare, even though the work loads were demanding, I found this job rewarding and opportunities for advancements. I learned numerous skills especially in the area of supervision and leadership- the demands, the follow up, the presence of leadership needed, training used as a positive tool, human resource topics (employment law/protected classes, etc), completing the IFUR tools used by the State of Indiana, and the conduct and attitude of a supervisor. I enjoyed my co-workers, always found times to ease the stress with laughter, and were helpful one to another. The hardest part of the job was not being able to have a complete family life or the time to wind down from the demands of the job. Highly intensive, but it was my job. I really enjoyed working with the individuals I served. They were very special and anything I could do for them to make their lives better and functional was rewarding. Just seeing the smile and greetings they had for me when I walked in the door. They made me appreciate my life even more.

The amount of pay was way too low for the amount of stress and the amount of work that they expect you to do. The operation I worked at was very unorganized. Plan on working a lot of DSP hours to cover openings. If you hate being at home this is the perfect job for you because it takes up all your time and when you're at home you're taking phone calls or doing paperwork to catch up on things. It takes almost a month to get a new hire on the floor with the ridiculous amount of training they make them grow through. Then you are stuck working those hours to meet ratios. Upper management puts more and more work on your load. You are responsible for every single thing in that house. The amount of pay is nowhere near what a residential manager should make for all the things they are responsible for and they are the ones that get blamed if anything goes wrong. The QIDP makes almost 6 more dollars an hour and I was never really sure what they were doing because I did everything regarding the house, dealt with all employee issues and Resident issues. Upper management does not care about the DSP workers or the residential manager there is no support and you are never told when you do do a good job or given a thank you. ResCare does not give out any raises or bonuses or even any holiday bonuses. They are a  multi billion dollar company but do nothing for their employees. The upper management is not concerned about the residents it's all about money. There was no main office at my operation and everything had to be done out of the homes which is not fair to the residents. That is their home and Rescare business should have been done somewhere else. They were too cheap to rent a building  in the area so that business could be conducted there such as, meetings,  interviews, training Etc . There was no HR close or any kind of trainers available so all of that work was put on the residential manager.
My recommendation would be don't take the job, you will not last there long. They make it sound very good at first but once you get doing it it is a horrible mess.

I worked at 3 different houses and I worked there for 3 years. First house the put me in was only temporary until they found a manager. When I was moved the house was pretty cool. All the clients were chill. However I made the mistake of going back to the old house to be the manager. All of the clients there but one were chill. One however was very combative and would scream for hours. They kept saying they were gonna move him but never did. Can’t tell you how many times I was smacked by him. They finally found a drug that pretty much knocked him out. The staff there wasn’t good. It was every man for themselves. I finally got fed up and left the house to a part time position. The nurse at the last house I woken at was pretty rude and our supervisor let her do whatever she wanted cause she pretty much checked out. The two morning guys I worked with were cool and we all got a long. The morning and afternoon shift just didn’t like each other. Mostly because of the nurse. We got a new supervisor and she right off the bat showed favoritism to all the Filipino staff cause she is Filipino. After the manger got fired the place pretty much fell apart. We were worked into the ground for such little pay and it seemed like they were never gonna find a new manager. Four hours there felt like four years. We also had gotten a new client that hated women. He attacked the female staff and the one female client on many occasions. The pm shift felt so unsafe one time they called the cops. Do you think they moved him? No. I left because the supervisor looked too me to pick up the slack of the house manager and I did not sign up for that. ResCare only really cares about the money. They don’t care if the staff is safe or not. If they have to move a client then there goes the money from the government. We got our food delivered to us from a company that was two hours away and had to drive through traffic. Frozen food was pretty much starting to thaw when we got it. I don’t know why they didn’t find a company closer.

ResCare took over the Families First/workforce contract in the state of Tennessee in 2013. Where do I begin...
The project was poorly managed. 
*the offices where staff were housed were not customer friendly (ie too small and no room for privacy) and some sites were a potential hazard.
*at some sites, ie rural locations, there were no activities to assign job seekers to other than job search. 
*ResCare employees didn't even have basic office equipment (ie computers) until much later in the contract

 

The Benefits..SUCKED
*There was no maternity leave, you had to check in every 30 days. Your job was not secure nor was your leave paid.
*The insurance was terrible...by the time you pay the doctor bills...you might as well not have had insurance in the first place.
*Employees worked on holidays that job seekers were exempt from. 

 

The Turnover...HIGH
*There were a slew of program managers and project directors...I cant blame them for leaving once they saw the ship sinking

 

Staff Training.....None
*Nuff said....the staff did not get any training other than reading from a powerpoint printout.

 

Now don't get me wrong....I'm not some vindictive, scorned former employee. This was REALLY HAPPENING!! I've read WONDERFUL reviews of this company. However, my experience was NOT. I believe that the reviews depend on the specific projects. I think the healthcare projects get good reviews. All other projects...NOT! All I'm going to say about ResCare is that for a self proclaimed multi-million dollar company, the business plan for this particular project seemed to be though out and executed like armatures. The wages were low and the expectations of the employment specialist were not practical or obtainable. The accountability for the job seeker's success rested on the employment specialist and not the job seekers themselves. In conclusion, I am glad that this project is OVER in my state and I would NEVER EVER EVER EVER work for ResCare EVER again in my entire life. Ever. Enjoy your day!

 

End.

ResCare is the most ignorant and fiscally irresponsible company that I have ever had the displeasure of working for. They claim to be "all about people", but it's really just the bottom line that they care about. There are quite a few caregivers and supervisors who seem to truly care about the clients, but upper management does nothing to support the people below them. There is a definite seperation between the Supervisors and the Directors. ResCare goes through frequent "restructuring" (layoffs) due to budget concerns, yet the executives have no problem dining at Outback Steakhouse for lunch, spending money on ridiculously expensive software that doesn't even fit their needs, "marketing"-which is basically taking people out to lunch and schmoozing them but there was never anything gained by this, it just seemed like an excuse to go to a fancy lunch or be out of the office. They do this, then they pass on a wage cut to the caregivers, or fire a few more people. They have eliminated any benefits that would make someone want to stay, there is no tuition reimbursement, they eliminated the company match portion of the 401k, they no longer let you cash out your PTO time, and the medical plans just get more and more expensive every year, despite having a deductible of $1500-$2500 depending on the plan you choose. And that's just the admin plan, the caregivers are offered a plan that I would barely call insurance. Wages are not competitive, every caregiving agency that I am familiar with pays more per hour, and gives raises. Don't ever expect a raise at ResCare, not even if you are amazing at what you do. They DO NOT give raises for merit. No mileage reimbursement or window time for caregivers either, even though they drive all over town from client to client. The hardest part of the job was keeping my mouth shut about all the dumb decisions they made over the 6 years I worked there, and the best part was the day I turned in my resignation letter.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Direct support professional 90 salaries reported	$16.27 per hour
Licensed practical nurse 22 salaries reported	$27.37 per hour
Residential manager 7 salaries reported	$19.74 per hour
Caregiver 24 salaries reported	$15.68 per hour
Licensed vocational nurse 5 salaries reported	$28.46 per hour

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