registered behavior technician

direct support professional

board certified behavior analyst

aba therapist

recruiter

Damar Services, Inc.

Damar Services is an institution that strives to help children and young adults with developmental disabilities to cope with life's greatest challenges in order to help them construct a better future.  Damar seems like a great place to work in the social work field, helping young adults and children with developmental disabilities better themselves, however, Damar is not what most people expect once they are hired on.  After graduating from Indiana State University with my bachelor's in Psychology I decided to try my hand at social work at Damar.  A typical day working at Damar turned out to involve such events: constantly intercepting destructive behaviors or self-harm or harm to others (including staff), catching and containing or restraining clients who try to escape from the lock down facilities or whose behavior escalates to a state where they are attempting to harm oneself or others, mediating between clients when they have disputes, transporting clients to and from school, doctor's app, etc., mediating between parents of clients and clients in the home or on Damar's houses.  What I learned from Damar is that social work is not for me.  I learned a lot about how hard it is to be an authoritative figure and earn my clients trust and respect.  Even though as far as education was concerned I was qualified for the job, I often felt unprepared to deal with situations that arose while working with most of my clients because I had no experience working with developmentally disabled people or managing people who are very defiant to authority.  Had I realized what all the job entailed, I would have decided that it did not fit my personality and not taken the job in the first place, but I am glad that I did so that I could experience what it is like to be a social worker.  The most enjoyable part of my job was working with one particular client that I feel like looked up to me.  She simply needed to be taken from the bad environment she was in and shown what healthy and positive relationships were like.  I felt like I had a good impact on her and was glad to see her graduate from Damar and return home to her family.  Overall, I would not recommend Damar to family and friends to work at.  I believe it takes a special kind of person with a lot of patience and passion for the developmentally disabled to work at Damar.  Damar was a very tough place to work emotionally as well as physically.

A typical day at work includes: 
Providing a safe and fun and ethical environment for all consumers.
Always being prepared for anything.
Engaging with the kiddos the entire time you are with them, to gain their trust.
Running their specific program(s) to see what they have retained and to see what needs to be focused on more; when teaching. 
Implementing reactive strategies when problem behaviors occur. 
We eat lunch with the kiddo(s). 

Over time some information that I have learned while being here:
There are opportunities to always make life and learning more fun.
There are opportunities to change your position, in another location of Damar, if ABA is not for you. 
Management is good at working with you, as long as you remain in good standing with Damar and their policies. 
The workplace culture of Damar ABA is good. 
The turnover rate is one of the most hardest parts about the job. Seeing so many people with many different backgrounds and different levels of experience just come and go. Then having to start back at square one. Not having enough time during the interview process to really get the chance to see how your every day might look, to ask more in depth questions; so you can really get a feel for what you would be doing. 
Being able to get down to the kiddo(s) level of fun, seeing their milestones of success, making a remarkable difference; in not only their life, but their family and loved ones lives as well. Teaching them life/everyday skills that they will use everyday. Hearing them talk for the first time. Teaching them how to talk. Teaching them how to best communicate. These are just a few of the many reasons that working at Damar ABA has been so amazing. 

I Worked here for a total of about 5 years through these five years I had fun and loved working with the clients. However the management here struggles with some basic things. Communication between upper management and hourly employees is very poor. The HR department does not fully understand each department they represent because Damar has such a wide variety of thing they do. 

At Damar it really depends on who you know. There are many prominent people at Damar and as long as you remain on their good side you will not have any issues. Once one of them doesn't like you or something you did in their eyes wrong you will start to notice that your opinion is no longer valued, you'll start seeing more confrontation with decisions you make. Many leaders at Damar have an ego I believe to be to big to say you work for the kids. 

In my time at Damar I loved the clients they serve as well as there mission. I hope this company at some point can take a step back and see what the real problem is. 

As a therapist the workplace culture within peers is great. I hardly went a day that I did not feel supported by BCBA's and other therapist, however like i stated earlier people outside of these positions that don't see the clinic on a daily basis make the job hard. In any day you can be in 10 high intensity maladaptive behaviors. While these behaviors are going on directors are rarely there to help or give advice on the situation. 

The most enjoyable part of this job is seeing the kids progress, when you can take a step back from the politics that go on here you will see the great things they are able to do with the kiddos. I feel blessed to have worked and seen so many kids progress through this program.

You come in and they train you to be stoked about helping the children there. You get on the floor and see how the management and staff treat these children and you are appalled. You still feel like YOU can make the biggest difference and you do the best you can each day. You seek guidance and understanding from management and get shut down. You will get burnt out and fed up quickly due to SO MANY FACTORS; no support, fake people, ridiculous politics, haters, liars, etc., and don’t get me started on the rumor mill that churns out absurd “facts” that HR and Director’s will take for truth. I was able to advance rather quickly due to work ethic and my character. As I advanced, the politics became worse and they expected you to work and be available at all times. They say they are in support of work/life balance but make you feel bad when you let them know you need time away. They say to your face that they hear your concerns and do nothing to change or solve the issues. Key issues, such as inappropriate physical contact, aren’t even handled properly. You may want to work here to get some experience in the field, but don’t stay in this toxic environment. You can give them your absolute EVERYTHING and still it will not be enough. My entire heart was in this company. They stomped on it and ignored important matters that I brought to light. Save yourself the heartache and work someone else that will better appreciate you and what you bring to the table. 

There is a disconnect between the mission of the company and the services and treatment of clients and client facing staff. The administrative and management teams regularly "compliment" client facing staff by "thanking" them for "all they do" while never actually providing proper support to the staff on the floor: units are regularly out of ratio or inappropriate staff are sent to cover units/allowed to continue working because a warm body is needed. Staff who are regularly known by management to sleep, not engage with clients, not share the load are rarely corrected and hard working staff are "rewarded" with overtime since the base pay is laughable for the amount of work done, IF everyone actually does it. Also, the occasional free t-shirt, donuts and pizza are to compensate for the palpable lack respect for the people actually working on the units. What typically happens overtime is that client facing employees who actually want to help the clients give up due to loss of morale but continue working to earn a living until they can find something better elsewhere or, get promoted and either promptly forget what working on the floor was like or tell their own "when I was on the floor" stories without providing actual solutions to problems. Policies seem to change on a whim based on past outcomes instead of being forward thinking and preventing incidents. The general atmosphere is one of negativity, sarcasm and "why bother" because of the pride in the "Damar way" and the "Damar difference" perpetuated by people removed from daily reality on the units.

When I first started with Damar Services the main focus was about the clients being served and the families we were helping with services we did. Over the years and with new executive leaders the model became more about money and how they can bring in more money and what they could get out of their employees for less pay. The agency has great potential but I believe they should refocus their beliefs and future of the company and be more focused on the services being served to the families. The management within Home Based services is more focused on themselves and what they can benefit from others. They use their employees and do not respect nor honor them for the work they perform. They are not very supportive nor do they hold employees within the department accountable for their jobs.  My typical work day consisted of checking emails for referrals being submitted through KidTraks for service request. Than staffing the referrals, updating client listings and clinical assignments. Cross checking billing documents submitted for weekly services against referral units. I handed out initial document packets for new cases and would track them for completion within deadlines. The hardest part of my job was doing all of the work I had to with generating reports and documents and never feeling appreciated for the work I had performed.

Damar has a great training program through their 2-week orientation that everyone has to attend regardless of your position but staff is just thrown into the ring of fire after the 2 weeks and IBIs shadow for 2 weeks. After the shadowing there’s some training on documentation then you kind of just start conducting “behavioral intervention” and doing observations. Staff doesn’t listen to you, they have been working for years beyond your time there. They have their own handle on the kids and the IBI position is completely useless. IBIs are really only there to show DCS that behavioral intervention is being done to help the kiddos but all you actually do is sit there. They talk big about not secluding kids and talking down to the kids but that’s basically all you see staff doing. Schedule is flexible and there are lots of opportunities to work from home. You set up your own schedule and your manager doesn’t ask about any of it. The behavior plans, data, and majority of the work are bogus. IBIs just show up for a paycheck. If you’re looking for a legit position - this isn’t it.

The 2 week training for this job is amazing.. unfortunately once you’re thrown into the units everything changes. The training does not mirror reality. Although there were some amazing direct care staff and nurses most are there for a pay check and talk down to the kids. Some of the units have dirty living conditions. Nurses don’t have good support and are not protected like they should be against the more aggressive and violent kids. Long hours with a huge work load, and the nurses that don’t do their work get away with leaving more work for the ones who care. Constant training new employees due to high turn over in nursing. All computer charting and endless emails of notifications. Training new nurses basic computer skills with no compensation for it. I did enjoy this type of nursing: case management, health and medication management, one on one time and relationships with the kids, I left there with pure disappointment in management. It is a beautiful campus from the outside and could be an amazing place with a wonderful cause if it wasn’t corrupt and money driven. 

During my time at Damar I had some really great co-workers that did some amazing work with the kids but the management was very disorganized. They rarely observed our therapy to make sure things were being done correctly and then would tell us they were going to observe us. The would observe us for a month and stop.  It was very frustrating especially when I got my 1 year review and they said I'm not where I should be as a therapist but it was their fault for not educating us. They held against me anyways even though they admitted it was their fault. They didn't give me a raise in an entire year. I had a kid that was extremely aggressive for 3 months and they would not allow me to put him in a hold even though he I've on campus and was put in holds daily. They allowed him injure me on a daily basis. This child was high functioning and would aim to hurt me. When I asked to be switched off him they questioned whether I could do my job. I could do the job but allowing a child to beat up a therapist is not a part of the job. I hear there is new management now and things are being run much better now. I hope this true for therapists and children's sake.

I worked for Damar for 7 months in 2012. It was my very first experience with working with individuals with developmental disabilities. I began as a floater and then worked on the boys autism units. While working there I did build great relationships with the individuals I worked with. I really loved the co-workers I worked with and we were a great team. But here are my cons about Damar, which are pretty important. 1. There is no actually plan for development for the individuals who are supported. If you taught them a positive behavior it would only be present during your shift because not all shifts worked as a team to decrease negative behaviors. 2. You really have to make your opinion apparent for management to take you serious. Like I had to threaten to leave in order to be put on the unit I wanted to work at. 3. The timeline to advance in the company was very long. My coworkers were there between 5 and 10 years before they advanced. 4. Only certain individuals get certain privileges like going on outings. The unit I was on never got outings but other units went out every week. Since it has been some time since I work there I hope that these cons have changed.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Registered behavior technician 3 salaries reported	$20.67 per hour
Direct support professional 3 salaries reported	$15.33 per hour
Board certified behavior analyst 3 salaries reported	$71,667 per year
Aba therapist 3 salaries reported	$16.33 per hour
Recruiter 1 salary reported	$50,504 per year

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