residential coordinator

residential counselor

facility coordinator

medication manager

housing specialist

DePaul Community Services

At a typical day at work I walk in and say hello to all my residents. I do whatever is  needed at whatever site I am at. This can mean I am doing medicaid services with them, passing medications, preparing food for them, being there to talk with them if they need support,taking them out on there recreation outtings, taking them to medical/psychiatric appointments,  and many other things. Depending on the week, I may work at four different sites in one week, which really gives me the ability to have diversity in my work days and meet so many new clients and staff. I truly enjoy my job because I am able to be there for my clients in their time of need, and give back to them in whatever ways I am able. The reason I am looking for something else, is 90% location. I live an hour away from all but one site and this makes it very difficult to support myself, as I spend most of my money on gas. The hardest part of my job at depaul is dealing with crisis' with the clients. On any given day, you may be sending someone to the ER for anything ranging from them being suicidal, catatonic, manic, severely depressed, having physical problems, etc. Management differs depending on what site I am working at, but for the most part I enjoy working with all the managers I have met so far. Depaul is a great company, but I do not agree with a lot of there policies and procedures. I am just looking for something different right now. My absolute favorite part of my job is interacting with the residents. It's a wonderful feeling when you can be there for them and help them in there time of need, when they may not have anyone else to talk to and you can see how much they appreciate someone simply being there for them.

Two years into the pandemic and most of our residents are in crisis. The location I work at has been short-staffed for over 3 years. Employee turnover can be high, when people realize what this job entails. Those of us that are here have been around for awhile and are honestly sticking around for each other or biding our time for a new opportunity. Me and my coworkers work great as a team and we like each other a whole lot. But we don’t really receive support from anyone but each other. When my coworkers are out with covid, we have to make do with the remaining staff. This often means you’re there alone assisting several adults with severe mental health illnesses. All by yourself. About a year ago we were all given a raise, the biggest raise we’ve ever received. It’s made it difficult to find another position with comparable pay. But it’s still not enough for what we are expected to accomplish. Right now we are expected to be housekeepers, therapists, custodians, one-on-one aides, and patient care techs. DePaul cares about one thing: their money. They do not care about the people we are supposed to serve or the people doing the actual work with residents. There is a real “us vs. them” mentality between residential workers and the people who work at admin. Very different treatment. For instance, last year everyone at admin got a 3 day weekend for Juneteenth. But residential workers were not paid holiday pay to work that day. In sum, I wouldn’t recommend DePaul to anyone unless you love to be undervalued at doing some of the most important work there is.

Appearances are very important to this company because until you live/work their, you may not pick up on the poor care, high turn-over, and horrible overall management from top to bottom. The only positives to working there is learning how to interact with different people of all ethnicity's and the wisdom shared by residents. The food is horrible, aides are constantly understaffed and mandated to work or face losing their job, policies broken, and administration could not care less. It's a "revolving door" company. Almost as soon as the aides are trained, they either leave or are fired and new ones come in. Every two-four weeks there are 5+ new aides to replace the others. I learned to figure out for sure what kind of company you are going to be working for before wasting your time with them. My co-workers could be fun to work with but I found out the hard way that however your supervisor feels about you, is the way they will begin to feel about you. The hardest part is removing all the knives from your back when you leave after a long shift. Also being short staffed all the time and dealing with mandated aides for the same reason because they are often disgruntled and feel it's your obligation to better their night. Another hard part is when you leave, hoping the residents will survive the atrocious care overlooked by administration. The most enjoyable part is getting to know the residents and their families, providing them with quality care at least while you are on shift. They are often very thankful to have someone who cares and will brighten their day around.

This job is very tiring!!! Whatever about them saying that you have to be mentally strong. For the amount of torture/ not getting paid enough it's not worth it. It could be rewarding, seeing your resident improve and move on. But Depaul seems like the programs are just doing this all for the money. The only ones that care about the clients... EVERYONE BUT MANAGEMENT!!  Depaul claims to be person- centered, but it's not due to the bullying of management to other staff and the clients. There is NO support from management on-sites or even higher management. Your suggestions mean nothing even though they ask for them. You aren't trained well and to be working with persons with mental health that should not be allow. Management does NOT care if you don't understand they will tell you to do it still. They will also blame you if it is done wrong or something goes wrong. RC's have been talked down too like they are incompetent. To be in the mental health field, this job doesn't care about the employee mental health. You will feel stress out being there not because of the clients, but because of the lack of support and countless hours of being there and then getting in trouble because you went over your time and DePaul will have to pay you over-time. You will get fired for going against the company. You will feel like a slave to a company that will suck you dry and then drop you.

Some nights are reserved than others as to other nights are very challenging, it depends on what mood the clients are in determines a good night or a challenging night for me.
What I most learned, you cannot wear your position on your sleeve, a good sense of human will work, be consistent and do not take anything for granted. When you do not know a situation do not second guess- ask your supervisor on site or within calling distance-  the best way to handle the situation. If no management available use your better judgment and or your community medical resources  PAO, Mobile Crisis or Lifeline.(do not hesitate to ask them for assistant  this is your community resources).
The hardest part is when a client feels rejected and unworthy of not being here on this earth and you have got to convince them that they is just as important as anyone here on site and or living on the face of this earth.We must play our position at all cost to ensure some clients are getting what they need to transist back into the community- for the clients that will not transist help them to be as safe, comfortable in their current living environment.
My enjoyable part on the job is seeing the residents smiling, getting along and interacting  with each other as a community.

Started in this company fresh out of college as a counselor. Much of how you perceive the job is based on your site. Some sites have good leadership and will help there workers achieve their goals and give them the tools they need to succeed. Other sites will do the exact opposite and have been for a long time. There is high turnover in many positions due to stress and a lack of communication and training. There are plenty of jobs available within the company to transfer and move into, but expect to wait weeks if not months to hear back. Expect to be thrown under the bus from time to time by other employees. With this said, paid time off and vacation pay are excellent and again depending on your site, you can have very generous time off. The pay is also very good compared to other organizations in the industry but has a long way to go before a fair wage is reached for those who work hard in their positions. Burnout is also a real thing and can happen quickly in this job.
 This job has made me realize that without mental health workers, this world would be a completely different place. However, this job has also made me realize there is a lot of internal problems with the mental health industry. This is a great company to work for to gain experience but I would not recommend it long-term.

I've worked here roughly 2.5 years and I was blessed to have landed a job where all the staff were supportive of one another and willing to give a helping hand. I've been able to be myself and have gained life skills and self-confidence in those skills. 

However, turnover rate is horrendous and little to no staff to cover shifts. The pay is a joke and you're given a 3% raise every so often. They are unwilling to pay staff what they deserve, even to keep a counselor/supervisor from leaving. Managment is unwilling to budge or find alternative ways to adapt to the changes COVID has created. They are sticklers for enforcing policies but don't hold clients accountable for their active substance use and shrug their shoulders to consequences for breaking said policies. 

I've had the chance to meet some wonderful people (staff/clients) during my time here, but upper management doesn't care much about their staff. I would recommend just for the experience (max 1yr) but long term, I wouldn't. 

I wish I had seen these reviews prior to employment.  I asked when interviewing how is the turnover rate as that usually tells you a lot about the company. They said oh it's not bad.....wrong! When a company has such a large turnover rate there is a reason. The management staff play favorites, if your not a favorite plan on being terminated on a whim. They will literally go out of their way to find something. They keep the bad employees and run out the good ones. They will take away resources so you can't complete your job duties. If the president of the company plays favorites then that is why it's acceptable in other departments. Human Resources will not back you even if there is evidence of bullying to make you quit or get fired. My son also received services and that too was horrible. He never had enough money to buy groceries. They are supposed to help the client not harm them. I would not recommend working here and would not ever seek services for my son again with them. Especially now that I know how they run it.  If you think it's great....dig deeper you haven't seen it for what it really is.

Avoid working for this company.  The reasons are many:  poor compensation for the line staff, (but not for management) no retirement pension, (it was discontinued around 2008) no matching contribution for 403-B, and a very top-down management style.  The paper workload for residential counselors is enormous, so much so that it's very difficult to take time off, even though the time-off is fairly generous, about 36 days a year of Personal Time Off if you've been there a few years.  The paperwork deadlines are inflexible and monthly, so if you plan to take a vacation, it can be very difficult to take even five days off and still meet the deadlines, and there are monthly performance evaluations to review how well an employee met the deadline for the month.  Turnover is high due to the stress, and management really doesn't care about the concerns of residential counselors, only that the deadlines are met.

Mental health and substance abuse residential work is tough no matter where you go. Being a residential service coordinator will most likely not be a walk in the park, unless you are magically handed an easy case load. It has its ups, downs, and perks. We have a lot of down time, and a lot of freedom, as long as we get our required work done. This is however a burnout social work position. You can't have this job and go home to continue thinking about this job. It will eat you alive! The work never ends, but some days and weeks are much better than others. Some weeks will be terrible and have you wanting to walk out. That being said, DePaul is one of the best agencies out there. The higher ups in the agency are responsive and accommodating. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Residential coordinator 7 salaries reported	$22.15 per hour
Residential counselor 2 salaries reported	$21.80 per hour
Facility coordinator 3 salaries reported	$24.45 per hour
Medication manager 2 salaries reported	$21.15 per hour
Housing specialist 2 salaries reported	$22.80 per hour

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