counselor

substance abuse counselor

MedMark Treatment Centers

What is the best part of working at the company?
The staff I worked with, such as the other counselors and front of desk staff, were some of the kindest and most fun people I have worked with. However, a lot of them were planning on leaving soon or have left.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Higher ups would place high expectations and offer no assistance or training on how to accomplish them. For example, the highest case load we were supposed to have was 50 patients. However, I regularly had 80-90 patients. Whenever this was brought up, we were told it was "temporary," as we continued to take in approx. 10 new patients a week without hiring new staff. It felt like the higher ups wanted to pretend we were a nonprofit in the early rough patch of helping others, and not a for profit that has been running for years and should have more organization in place.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Outside of the unofficial environment of staff talking with each other, the work place environment  was very poor. Little support, little training and little understanding of what we can accomplish. Higher ups expected us to do some sort of miracle work where 1 person would accomplish the workload of 5 without ever needing overtime or breaks between patients. Along with higher ups not properly reading through requirements, once leading to a time we could not accomplish a task as no one had the proper accreditation. The higher up in question treated it as something I can figure out, and not something we literally cannot do.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Get into work at 5am and see patients from 5am to 11:30am with no breaks. During this time I also had to manage emergencies, transferring information to other clinics/probation, handling intakes which would come in at any hour and leading groups. They expected paperwork to be done at 1pm, although I often had to stay later, as I had done intakes and individual sessions.

This is an addictions treatment program that's supposed to help with addictions however, this place is more of a "get your drugs here" and not on the corner. Highly stressful and unprofessional. They company pays you below the living wage, the clients as well as the staff are highly disrespectful, everything you'd expect from a drug addict you will experience with interacting with the clients. Also, most of the staff are addicts of some sort which is obvious after a while. Oh, and lets say you use your chain of command to report such behavior. You better hope you have a Director or supervisor who actually wants to fix the problem vs not wanting any negative attention on their facility.  Complaints will go in one ear and out the other. There's a disconnect in the big wigs at the top of the company making decisions and staff who work day-to-day operations in the clinics each day. The goals are unrealistic, operations expectations are  unmaintainable and when everything is pure chaos which it often is, everyone points the finger at the next person, management included. Its an everyone for themselves environment, pure stress and nonstop gossip. Employees are drug screened once when they get hired but that's it so most of the employees are high or drunk. I am done! Currently looking for another job and have been for a while now. As soon as something, ANYTHING  comes through I'm OUT!

● Pay & benefits
The moral in the office is Bad. It spread off to the patients. There is no communication in office!! Only one person can say something! Big time favortism going on. Employee turn over is crazyness,and patient get even more frustrated! And we'll don't do a good job or stay to long with the company cause you'll be the first to be let go! And there is no one to talk to. My advice take your problem straight to HR NOT CHAIN OF COMMAND!!!

● Job security and advancement
In terms of job security at MedMark Treatment Centers, I think there is no job security. Not with the New manager. His out of there. His wipe clean that whole office. Counsler and patient don't even want to be around him . They call in and patient are transferring out because all he cares about is $$$ even after arrangement have been made

● Overall
My experience working at MedMark Treatment Centers I work 3 years with the company and enjoy the patient the most. You grow to love them and that's the only reason I stayed. I would of never left , I went through 3 manager and as I say this manager got a heart as a rock and doesn't care about no one but himself!! He should not be on the field.

The support from the Clinical Director and Program Director is strong and consistently present. Having prior experience working within an OTP across multiple roles, including Counselor, Clinical Director, and Program Director, it is evident that the expectation of 60 minutes per patient for 55 patients per month is not clinically or operationally sustainable.
While this level of contact may be appropriate during the first 30 days of treatment, or for patients identified as high-risk, it is not an efficient use of clinical resources for patients who are stable and in long-term remission. Requiring extended sessions for patients with sustained recovery (e.g., two years abstinence) limits the ability to allocate time and attention to individuals who are at higher risk for overdose, disengagement, or relapse.
A more clinically appropriate approach would involve stratifying session frequency and duration based on acuity, allowing resources to be directed toward patients with the greatest need while maintaining appropriate support for those in stable recovery.


I have enjoyed working for this company for the past several years, but recently, politics have come into play in where quantity became more important than quality. A typical day at work is answering busy phones, multitasking, dealing with veterans' disturbed, happy, confused and unsure behaviors-sometimes all at once!  I've learned to be more appreciative of what our vets have sacrificed for our freedom and my patience threshold has tripled. My co-workers used to work more as a time until recently, when the work load has tripled but the staff has not.
The hardest part of my job is having to put a patient off because I can't help them in the way they deserve to get assistance in a timely manner. The most enjoyable part of my job is how the veteran's actually Thank ME for helping them!  I take care of them because I want to and most of them are so very appreciative of the care and attention they receive from me.

Short answer is this: You will work horrible hours (4:30 or 5:00 a.m. until 1 or 2 p.m.) Monday through Friday, see dozens of clients per day for quick case management sessions (improperly billed as "counseling"), and you are also lucky to work on Saturday, too!  Clients are nothing more than walking wallets.  Training from corporate is dismal and inadequate.  Massively underpaid in all positions.  Middle management is all about pushing to open clinics all over the USA/Canada in close proximity to each other all to bring in those sweet sweet Medicaid dollars.  Money-driven.  Horrible hours.  Underpaid.  Expect no time off, constant staffing shortages, tremendous pressure to do your job plus the job of four others (because they can't find staff to work for ridiculously low amounts of money) and then be written up/fired for such.  Clients are cash cows.  Not worth it.  Skip this place.

Not what it seems! At first you will think it's a "family work" environment. Joke! Team? Where? I guess for certain cliques. Worst work environment to be in, even though some co-workers were nice to work with while others could not be TRUSTED. A lot of backbiting individuals work there. Pay was low and horrible. The sign on bonus you supposed to get NO COMMENT. Then there are non-licensed people constantly trying to tell you how to do your job because they been there since the building was built. They let certain staff get away with everything while the productive workers always have to "step up to the plate" when something comes up. They expect you to know everything in a short period of time and when you don't, you have those certain CLIQUES that like to talk bad about the staff. High school drama. I would not work here again if it was the only choice I had! Management is a complete joke and displays obvious favoritism!! The only good thing was making the patients smile everyday.


I found my experience at this workplace to be challenging. Initially, I was led to believe the job would be manageable, but I ended up with a caseload of over 60 patients, requiring bi-monthly appointments and group sessions. This workload left me feeling overwhelmed and stressed daily. Despite my efforts, there was a consistent feeling that my work was not appreciated. I encountered situations where patients verbally abused staff, which management had suggested would lead to discharge, but no action followed. There were instances of gossip among staff members and patients, creating an environment where trust was difficult to maintain. While I met some friendly colleagues, the overall atmosphere was not conducive to a positive work experience. For anyone considering employment here, I would advise exploring other opportunities.

This was my first counselor position with MedMark. A typical day for myself there was to train and take notes from the computer based  skill test manuals there were so many I could it was hard to retain the information that I was being tested on while attending clinical meetings and learning how the company flowed and was managed. This was an stressful task. The hardest part of the job was managing the clients paper records, which was as unorganized as they could be. Management had me in the file room working on files that were messed up long before I was hired to work there and that was truly unfair to me when I could have been taking time learning the information on the skill test manuals for the work that I was being trained and hired to do. that was truly unfair to myself. The most enjoyable part of the job was the individual session that I had with my assigned clients. Again all a learning experience for me.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Helping and meeting the patient especially those that were apprehensive about the program in the beginning.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Wages. Unable to meet my day to day expenses due to extremely low salary. This caused a serious staff issue. I only made $13 an hour! I took the job because I was moving here from another state, thinking once I get here I could find employment with the option to make more and possibly do more. However, the pandemic hit.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Well you dealt with addicts which most were respectful and then there were those that got very angry.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Repetitive. The same thing just about every day. Check-in clients, every other morning sit with financial clerk for bank deposit and answer phones.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Counselor 3 salaries reported	$44.00 per hour
Substance abuse counselor 1 salary reported	$43,621 per year

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