mental health therapist

licensed practical nurse

therapist

clinical educator

administrative assistant

DRUG ABUSE FOUNDATION

Drug Abuse Foundation is a great place to discover your passion for working with people in recovery and understand that addiction doesn’t choose who it affects and that addicts are still people. Technicians (Day shift) are hard workers and go out of their way to tend to clients to the best of their abilities, and it is an easy role as long as you stick to the schedule, general policies, and are not easily manipulated/ go into the job looking to be the clients friend. Technicians (night shift) are lazy and negligent. I was told by multiple night shift employees that they do their homework and watch Netflix during their shifts. All they do is rounds to make sure the clients are in their beds (which they honestly didn’t do and they were quite open that they didn’t). I was told clients were doing dr*gs and having s** (not only with other clients, but also employees) during the night shift and it was overlooked by management… meanwhile if day shift took a long “smoke break” they were reprimanded. Management typically stayed in their offices or in the comfort of their homes watching the security cameras and only contacting staff via telephone or in person when they had something to complain about. 

The men’s residential was infamous for smuggling “contraband” whether it be dr*gs, v*p*s, or cellphones. There was not enough staff to properly monitor these clients. 

Women’s residential , as to be expected, was full of cat fights and drama as well as clients having s*x with one another. 

Detox unit was neglected heavily by medical staff and there was NO psychologist or psychiatrist to meet with clients during debatably the most stressful part of recovery. They are in pain, sick, and feel both angry and upset, etc., yet there was no support other than the technicians whom would be reprimanded and accused of “relationship forming” when clients approached them to vent to which they would listen and give insight and support. 

Intake is the one exception to daytime technicians who are hard working. When intake was slow , and even if clients were in the office techs could be seen on their phones with headphones in watching tv. Intake dealt with the assessors  (psychological) who admitted clients based on their mental health combined with the assessment from the nurse. The assessors are the laziest employees. When called they would decline your call long enough to where once they answered they were 5 minutes from no longer being on call and would make you call the next assessor who usually had “appointments” already or would not be on call for another hour… meaning a client would be sitting in intake for multiple hours when the goal is to have them (if accepted) in a bed in detox within 2 hours or less. They refused to work past their scheduled hours and it created multiple issues. 

To continue: Staff is NEVER on time for shift relief. The night staff complains that day staff is never on time and day staff complains that night shift is never on time… soooo this perpetuated both shifts constantly being late in spite of the staff they were relieving. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
Helping clients and that is it.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
How much time do you have? If you’re salary they don’t pay for overtime even though the job sometimes requires it with such a short staff, and if worked under 40 hours for some reason they pay you by the hour not the salary they hired you at. They use accrued PTO for holiday paid days off, that’s right need to take a day off and wondering where your PTO went, it went towards covering what should be a paid day off. Staff are over worked and under appreciated and that’s why they can’t keep staff. Clients are not respected by company and are treated like they are in jail. Clients are not given adequate services that DAF charges for. Clients release and sometimes overdose and they find other ways to add documentation so they are not held accountable for letting clients slip through the cracks. When employees report DAF and investigations are conducted they expect staff to lie and falsify documents during audits. This job is a S**t show to say the lease.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Hectic, stressful, and there is no support as for as each individual staff member and personal things they maybe going through.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Long and busy with clients. If others can’t make it to work it is thrower on the person there regardless if it unlikely to manage.

I’ve been at this company for over two years now, and it is not worth it to be here for more than 6 months. Upper management does not care about staff members. This company does not give bonuses or raises to staff members. It is completely unorganized and communication between departments is awful. Since I have been employed, I have witnessed 7 other staff members leave the department I work in. They cannot keep employees. The residential programs have received renovations and new construction, while staff members barely have an office or even a decent working computer. This company only cares about the upper management and not the lower staff members. There is a huge mouse problem as well which has been going on for several months without any solution. There has been covid cases at the company, and the ceo & Vice President has not informed other staff members of this, there is no covid 19 protocol here. They will pile on case loads and more work for case management, without the understanding of what someone’s job really includes. This company needs to treat their employees better and then maybe staff members would stay. Clients have been tested positive and staff members as well. 

DAF is a terrible place to work. Extremely high turnover because staff are overworked and unhappy. Everything is extremely disorganized there. I was desperate to leave, as are many. It is the type of job that really burns you out. There are a few great people that work there in lower to mid-level roles, but they are not given the resources or proper direction and support to do their jobs. Everyone hates being at DAF, both staff and clients. 
If you must work here, plan on staying no more than 6mths to a year (if you can bear it). This is not a job where you want to build a career and advance. All the executives have been there for decades and basically are just waiting on retiring. People who continue to stay appear to just be settling as most are dissatisfied. 
Unless you are desperate and just starting out in the field, do LITERALLY anything else but work here. I am not saying this to bash the agency, but if I had listened to reviews I would've been better off. 

I can only give you my experience. You do have to cover your butt and they will get rid of you during orientation even after you have gone through a Level 1 and 2 background check. It appears they are still looking into your background even after you have been cleared and started working. 
The employees are seen as dispensable and can be easily replaced for the smallest reasons. This leads to a very stressful working environment because you are always watching "your p's and q"s. 
  You can be fired for any small perceived infraction. I never worked at a place that can get rid of you for a problem with your background, AFTER THEY HAVE DONE ALL THE REQUIRED BACKGROUND CHECKS.
Only management stays there for any real length of time. Everyone else is overworked and underpaid and not appreciated. If you work here remember they can get rid of you at the drop of the hat. 
DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT WORKING HERE. YOU WILL BE LEFT DISSAPOINTED>

Be prepared for a bait and switch, because the position you are actually hired for is not what you might end up doing, and you will have no say in this matter.  Upper management is completely disconnected from the rest of the employees, and they implement rules and "protocols" that do not make sense.  I say "protocols" because they are inconsistent and change based on whats happening that day.  Employees are given unrealistic amounts of work and practically set up for failure.  This is why it is a revolving door of employees, and because of that, the place will never run smoothly.  Few stay long enough to fully understand the field/agency, in order to make it run properly.  Then there is the communication, of lack there of.  People either do not realize the tasks they are responsible for, or they are doing too much because there is so much confusion and failure to communicate with the necessary individuals.

They will make you pay for your own background check and some of the training material required to on-board. It's very shady, and you won't be taught how to do your job. They will just yell at you or laugh when you ask a question. The upper management has been there for years, for everyone else it's a revolving door. They will yell you at until you stop doing your work, and then write disciplinary reports and fire you. There is also the same song playing over and over again in the lobby "Man In the Mirror," and it will stop randomly for 10-15 like prisoner torture, then start up again. You won't gain access to your pay stubs, and will be too afraid to ask. I finally got mine when I left, and there were 4 hours missing on my first pay check. You should focus on getting a job that wants you there, not one that doesn't train you and then fires you so they can justify their incompetence with lots of employee turnover. 

Okay pros is the pay and a new demographic to work with for me .depending on where you work it is very routine 
Cons
.SO MUCH FRIGGIN PAPWERWROK 
rude doctors
Upper management really dosent care about you and the place is sooo dirty!! Computer gets knocked out if it rains to heavy and they play fast and loose with your license and easily and quickly would throw you under the bus. 
I honestly dislike the place and the only reason It was bearable was because some staff are a dream to work it plus my actual supervisor was a dream to work it always Available and always honest. 
So if you work here it's really something you go into with low expectations and make the best of and just build your account but the risk are there.

This company only cares about the insurance money they get out from their clients.  They do not care about their clients , let alone their staff.   The Supervisors there are very demeaning and verbally abusive and make 1,000 excuses before they will admit their behavior, the courtesy they extend to their clients is not extended to their staff.  

Do yourself a favor, look for a job somewhere else.  If you get sick come to work, if you have vacation/PTO good luck getting it approved unless you are in upper management of favored by the Kings and queens of the organizations.  I can't stress enough how toxic the work environment and culture is there, especially in the RSS program.  Stay far away, far, far away.

This is arguably the worst place to work. Management is absolute trash and doesn't treat you like a human being. Terminate people for something that happened 2 months prior. Treats clients like numbers as well. They have a huge mice problem and their systems crash all the time. Great co workers and some clients and not a hard job but management makes it a nightmare. Their systems are also very easy and nice to work with (when they don't crash) as well. You also get no vacation even after the probationary period of 6 months like they tell you in orientation due to them ALWAYS being short staffed. Huge turnover rate. Nobody here is happy. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Mental health therapist 3 salaries reported	$67,500 per year
Licensed practical nurse 4 salaries reported	$30.00 per hour
Therapist 3 salaries reported	$60,000 per year
Clinical educator 4 salaries reported	$45,300 per year
Administrative assistant 1 salary reported	$17.50 per hour

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