clinician

rehabilitation specialist

licensed vocational nurse

program supervisor

case manager

Five Acres

A typical day includes engaging with clients ranging from 6-15 years old. Supporting and assisting clients navigate their day during school. I have a list of clients that I do pro-active and crisis visits at school in order to provide on-going support on a daily basis to avoid negative outbursts.  I provide the clients will avenues to express their frustrations and articulate concerns while assisting them with implementing their coping skills in order for them to have a productive  and successful day.

The hardest part of my job is engaging with a children and not being able to answer why they can't go home, why no comes to visit them or why there life is the way it is. Its a difficult lesson to learn that although you may have good intention and want to help others the reality that you may not be able to provide them with the solution. Its being able to provide the clients with hope for their future and helping them to recognize and capture opportunity that they may encounter.

Typical hours were 9-12 hours. Would often have little to no time balancing client care, meetings, trainings, and productivity demands. Management was not receptive or advocated for clinicians,  they seemed more focused on the bottom line and productivity versus client care. If you want to learn clinical skills, how to develop as a clinician or are a seasoned/license eligible clinician go elsewhere. Did not learn any clinical skills during employment there. Constant changes in upper and middle management as people were often moving to new positions or leaving the agency. 

Culture- Lots of focus on wellness, but little translates to support or any kind of action to primary care providers. Agency culture appears concerned with their image in public. Upper management has little knowledge of day-to-day job concerns. 

Hardest part of job- Meeting productivity within the 40hr workweek without having to work on weekends/late nights. Typical workweek includes late afternoons as that is when clients are available. Heavy commuting to client's homes. Rotating 24/7 on call crisis hotline. Lack of work-life balance, high stress work environment. Paperwork gets in the way of direct client care. 

Most enjoyable part of job- Working with undeserved populations; the clinical work with clients; being able to make a difference.

Literally the worst job I've ever had. I cannot stress enough how much they DO NOT care about their employees. Sure they give you free lunch, but theres a line and they run out of food constantly. And that only if you can find someone to cover for you while you get lunch. The supervisors are supposed to cover for you but my supervisors never did even when there was mandatory trainings. The kids have a variety of care levels some of which they don't even teach you how to handle because they require a much higher level of care but they stick them in with the other kids because they get paid for housing each kid. Residential treatment counselor is another word for slave. They are severely understaffed, which makes it difficult to do anything and everything. Kids will hit you and cuss you out constantly and the only form of punishment is to take away privileges such as going on outings and taking away tv time which only makes them angrier. They run away and you're expected to follow the kid but thats hard to do when there isn't enough staff members to watch the rest of the kids. The hours suck. You're basically there all day and they always want you to do overtime. I worked Sunday- Wednesday and I was there almost 13 hours each day. Sometimes 10 but that was rare. Too much work and responsibility for the little that they pay.

Work life at this company is as nice as you make it. The children are amazing and the client's and families make everything worth it; however the company itself has a poor turnover rate due to the inconsistent changes, frequent demerits for things that the company had instructed you to do but once DMH deemed the actions unjustified the company would provide consequences for those applicable. Frequent changes in billing requirements and changes in necessary language in paperwork that warranted disagreements within departments. Aside from this the company has much to offer in skills development, difficult to easy clients, and an opportunity to grow as an individual within the agency. The free meals at lunch and the amazing health care provided are one of the best things about the added features to working in this company. However, more than anything, the people who work here are all amazing and hard workers that encourage you to become greater than you thought possible.

Was a clinician in their residential programs as a floater and I loved working with the kids there. But their training is overwhelming and rushed you have over 60 hours of training crammed into a week. Guidelines are constantly changing. Your expected to be available for meetings and trainings and to respond to supervisors at all times (salary positions) and due to seeing clients in person in the afternoons and evenings you are often working 8am to 7:30pm. And when you work these hours you cannot shorten your time later that week. So you are burnt out. Pay is a joke. There’s no work life balance. CEO Chanel is well of touch with the work and her team (sends weekly emails about her privileged life and kids when her employees and clients are suffering). After about 2 years I had to leave to focus on my kids who I never got to see because I was running this crazy schedule. Stated hybrid remote but and flexible schedule but couldn’t be further from the truth.

Five Acres has a great mission and is a wonderful place to work for if you like helping people. Their are various opportunities throughout the organization.  Most recently new management came into place for the  program I worked for  and workplace became dreadful. Micromanaged to the core and only focused on producing numbers and lost touch with the real mission of helping families. I had been with the company for 4 years and was happy until all management left  and replaced by unqualified staff that have a power trip due to their lack of leadership skills. Team morale  is low due to the lack of cohesiveness amongst the team. It feels like management is out to get you.  I felt that the new managers lacked knowledge and  are were respectful to staff.    Recommendations are to really look what you are signing up for when looking into positions.

Mental health is a challenging sector but this organization has been here for over 130+ years and continues to adapt and evolve.  During Covid, Five Acres continued to operate and kept its doors open while still keeping workers safe to serve its mission.  Management hears the plea of the worker so there has been plenty of effort to improve work-life balance, health packages are continually improving for the worker, employee recognition programs and growth ladders are all revamped.  As a supervisor, I feel heard about the needs to strengthen my team.  The work is definitely hard as any organization developing new programs will face but I am confident in leadership's ability to provide the best direction.  As an organization, I truly believe we offer our employees the best tools and training to perform their best.  

I worked several years at Five Acres, in that time I have watched in change in various ways. Overall, I am grateful for my experience at this agency. Four out of my five supervisors were excellent and very supportive. During my time there I developed strong friendships with my peers and co-workers and I think that there was a strong sense of community during most of my time at this agency. The most difficult and tiresome part of my job was the paperwork. It never seemed to stop, and at times it felt very difficult to keep up. I went through several cycles of burnout while I was here. I was not alone in this experience as several of my peers had the same experience. This is a great place if you want to earn hours for licensure, because the hours rack up very quickly. The pay was okay, it was the general consensus from most of the therapist that we were underpaid for the amount of time we put into the job. Client wise, I loved the families I worked with. 

It's very exciting and rewarding to work for an Agency that promotes flexibility (e.g., working remotely, in-home) and not mandating a return to the office. I enjoy working in a program whose clients have private health care which is new for me and on a team which we work collaboratively to help our clients/families achieve their goals. I appreciate all the new skills I've learned and am still learning along with all the opportunities to demonstrate the knowledge that I've obtained. Most of all I appreciate the support from management which has shown me that I'm an asset to their team and I'm appreciated for my individual contributions to their mission statement. 

Great business to work for as a non profit. This is a money making business making money off children. If you do not have a background in child psychology or counseling, dont choose a job working with the kids, stay in the office. Working with the kids will trigger good and bad things for you. Foster kids are spoiled with activities to mask their painful backgrounds. Kids have a good time here but do not realize this a brick and wire facility heavily monitored and controlled. Little contract with reality. Stay smiling and do your job is common with staff. Working with kids directly is tough, you have hundreds of adult opinions on what's good parenting techniques. I suggest to just be your true self and do/say what's right for the child

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Clinician 9 salaries reported	$86,646 per year
Rehabilitation specialist 4 salaries reported	$26.95 per hour
Licensed vocational nurse 1 salary reported	$31.31 per hour
Program supervisor 2 salaries reported	$102,300 per year
Case manager 2 salaries reported	$22.69 per hour

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