therapist

social worker

case manager

youth worker

program assistant

Crittenton-Services-For-Children-and-Families

The hardest part about this job isn't anything to do with the clients, rather its dealing with the work system in place. As a floor staff, you're asked to do alot for very little pay and hardly any praise from higher-ups. When you do well in your unit and program, your unit is forgotten essentially that is until you do something wrongs. They emphasize teamwork but when it comes down to it no one shows up to help. In my experience, you have to "cover your back" otherwise if something is done incorrectly, the blame will always be pushed onto floor staff if possible. And let me tell you, the organization and respect by higher-ups for major changes in the company is not there. When informing us about major organizational changes, they won't tell us until the night before the changes are effective. You better adjust to the changes by the next day. 

The way Co-Vid is being handled at Crittenton now is a joke. First, floor staff are considered essential workers yet we didn't and don't get hazard pay. They say "this is your job so show up as expected." When staff bring up the suggestion to place clients that have awoled and returned on a short quarantine, staff was told "well we could say the same about you guys. We don't know where you have been either." And now staff is not being informed about about a possible outbreak at one site; only those they consider to have been "significantly exposed" are getting tested. Not every staff member is being given the opportunity to get tested and, aside from a cloth face covering, not every staff member is being provided with ppe as an additional form of protection while at work. Like I said, alot is being asked of floor staff for $15.

As a therapist you will work at a very busy and fast pace. You must learn how to multi-task and be very flexible with your daily schedule. I learned how to work with emotionally disturbed youth, work with a multi-disciplinary team, do paperwork for LA DMH, and become very efficient with time and stress management. Management is very hands on in teaching and helping employees build skills necessary to be successful in this field. Co-workers at Crittenton are great, friendly and helpful. The hardest part of the job is that there is an extremely large work load and the expectations are to get work done even if it means working late into the night ( I have worked 13 + hours at times). Also notable is there is no flexibility with the schedule, as you would expect with a salaried position. The most enjoyable part of the job is seeing the growth and improvement of the clients.

I did like the flexibility of the job during the work day, as it was sometimes possible, but not that we would sometimes have to work overtime hours without overtime pay due to being a salary employee. The program I work for recently went through audits and the supervisors recently read through the statement of works and it was realized that things were being done incorrectly, so it has been difficult trying to adjust to the new changes. My supervisor is usually understanding but he has his own supervisors to answer to when he advocated on our behalf when we were feeling overwhelmed with the workload. Upper management and the CFO would come down on us and want us to take more cases and work than we could handle and it is stressful trying to get everything done in a timely manner. It was difficult to have a work life balance and sometimes in order to reach deadlines, paperwork would be done early in the morning before going to the office, after work when at home, and at times on weekends. I did like working with my coworkers and the families on my caseload.

I have to agree with the previous reviewer that residential counselors are babysitters, maids, and even security guards. It seems like majority of the clients follow their program, but there are a handful of clients that deviate and some cause safety concerns toward others (clients and staff).

A typical day at work is taking headcount every 30 minutes until it hits 5 pm and it is checking where the clients are at 15 minutes. You will be prompting them to get ready for school, group, REC activities and meal time. You may also be transporting them using the company vehicles to court, medical appointments, urgent care/emergency room, etc. If the clients don't clean up, you are required to clean up after them. You are documenting paperwork every day too on each client.

You will also be filling out missing persons report if your clients AWOL. You will be doing room searches in case of any suspicion, monitoring the quad when clients seem they're suspicious activity, and de-escalating situations or possibly stopping fights.

It is a high stress environment with difficult and often times violent clients. The rapport built with the clients can be very rewarding. I learned many things about mental health care, duel diagnosis, and working with clientele from different cultures. I also learned that I can work well under pressure and during crisis situations.  
However, my experience with upper management was often unpleasant and left me wanting for more support. I often left their meetings with a feeling that my complaints and concerns are neither are valid nor heard. It is common for management to suggest the staff do not report assaults they received from the clients to the police.
Management also pushed through massive amount of changes to the function of the program in a short amount of time. Many of these changes included huge changes to job descriptions. They then demanded that their staff either agree to the changes to their job descriptions or go somewhere else. Many staff have chosen to leave unfortunately for many of the clients.

The foster families and foster children are great to work with and very friendly but management in Long Term Foster Care and Crittenton in general is HORRIBLE. The CEO and all upper Management do not care about their employees you are just a number and replaceable. The V.P of Long term foster care is power hungry, highly manipulative, disrespectful, micromanages everyones decisions and will always let you know she will always have a job there. Forget about getting an accurate employee evaluation from your program director because she will change almost all input from the person that actually works directly with the social worker. Long hours of work and nothing is free or time flexibility without a consequence or management asking you to do more later.

Crittenton is great short term, to get experience in working in a group home. If you can work here, you can work anywhere and handle just about anything. If you don't have tough skin, it'll give it to you. It is a high stress environment, and the only support you will get is from your team (and that's if you have a good team, fortunately I do). You will have to deal with clients getting escalated, break up fights and see/ deal with some EXTREME things. If you don't know how to separate work from home,you will have a tough time. Burn out is really quick due to poor benefits and lack of support from higher ups. They tend to make decisions that affect floor staff and clients without truly realizing the repercussions.

I want to start off by saying I love what I do and the client's I do it for.  They are the reason I continue to be here.  The job flexibility is also a huge plus as it allows me to have a work/life balance. 
My issues are from certain management who ignore concerns.  The concerns/challenges make the work harder because you constantly have to ask upper management to complete tasks or inform therapist of information and they don't.  There are many people who have the same views but shy away from making complaints due to fear or retaliation or feeling that their voice does not matter.  When staff don't feel supported it causes challenges.  I am fortunate to have an amazing supervisor who listens and advocates for me.  Everyone isn't so lucky. 

Program Office Assistant (POA) for Staff Development supported the dept by taking phone calls to scheduling training sessions-this job helped employees update their job related skills when ever needed.  Any administrative task undertaking by the Program Office Assistant allowed management to work on necessary new instructions encouraging proficiency in employee skills required by outside contracts and  the agency standard.  It was a joy getting to meet and support all the different employees of the organization.  Hardest part is learning how politics affects the outcome of good working programs within non-profit.

I want to start out by saying to look at the reviews below that a majority are the therapists, not those actually interacting constantly with the clients. As an RC you're pretty much a babysitter/maid for both the teens and their children. As it transitions to a short-term stay facility a lot of departments have been cut creating less staff and higher level clients coming in making things more difficult. If you have good social skills and extremely thick skin then you may do decently here. However, they preach to not let the clients have favorites but there is tons of favoritism that goes on among staff which may determine if you move up in the company which makes it a negative workplace culture.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Therapist 4 salaries reported	$69,658 per year
Social worker 4 salaries reported	$38.31 per hour
Case manager 3 salaries reported	$34.58 per hour
Youth worker 4 salaries reported	$19.84 per hour
Program assistant 4 salaries reported	$19.20 per hour

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