clinician

medical assistant

supervisor

registered nurse

nursing assistant

New Vista

There is another profile for this company on this site, so I'm copying my original review here for more visability, with some added details. 
New Vista is a very interesting place. It's known for being the place "you don't want to work after you graduate." But there aren't a lot of cushy therapy jobs available in Central KY for a brand new clinician fresh out of school, with no professional experience, and likely no supervisor. So inevitably, many of us apply to New Vista, with our heads held in shame as we click the submit button on the application website for one of the many open positions (there will always be a million open positions).
The pros: Free supervision, some opportunities to get free CEUs, a guaranteed paycheck, good PTO, great benefits, and tons of amazing experience.
Most of your clients will be some of the most vulnerable people in your county: low socio-economic status, most with trauma backgrounds, and many with various types of disabilities. Working with them and being able to be one of the few stable relationships in their life will be extremely rewarding. But let's face it: School probably didn't prepare you to face the high acuity and high severity symptoms you'll see here. And New Vista won't do much to prepare you either, despite their efforts at onboarding trainings. You need to be prepared to go to trainings on your own, listen to lectures/podcasts on your own, and read materials on your own to further your learning about the clients you're going to see. Even if you know outpatient may not be the correct level of care for a client, or they they can't reasonably benefit from therapy, OR you may be practicing out of your competency, good luck trying to get permission to refer out (you'll honestly just have to just do it on your own).
You're also probably not prepared for the sheer volume of clients you will be expected to see per month. And you will have a quota. Fail to meet that quota enough times and you'll get coaching sessions, improvement plans, and write-ups. It's extremely stressful. Be prepared to bust your butt calling and begging clients to come see you for therapy when you have cancelations.
You're also not prepared for the amount of documentation you're required to do. We're all aware that we have to do progress notes; we all learned DAP and SOAP in school. But you have 24 hours to do so. That, coupled with the fact that you are also expected to do referrals, collaborate with the treatment team, collaborate with community partners, return phone calls from clients and guardians, drop everything if an emergency or a walk-in shows up unexpectedly (management won't take those for you, btw), be organized, and generally perfect in every way, you'll find that things can get a bit overwhelming.
You'll get free supervision, and if you're lucky, your supervisor will be qualified to do the work, and not some burned out, hands-off, veteran therapist that you're on the path to becoming if you stay at New Vista for too long. Because since we're getting real, if you stay at this company for too long and don't move up in the ranks, you WILL burn out. Every therapist does. How long it takes you is dependent on your tolerance level. You'll love your clients but eventually you will be so mentally and emotionally exhausted that even seeing your clients isn't fulfilling and you'll start feeling like you're failing them and perhaps want to leave the field altogether. However, your coworkers, who are also in the same boat, will become some of your best friends. 
So you may ask, why did you give 3 stars?
Because you won't find many other places that will give you the experience and variety in clients and diagnoses that you'll see here. If you can succeed in this environment, you will have been exposed to a LOT, you'll be able to write notes quickly, diagnose quickly and accurately, and be generally more efficient and hardy than other therapists from other non-community mental health centers. New Vista is like boot camp. It prepares you for the trenches, but when you get out you'll be like a seasoned veteran, ready for anything.
And to be fair, this company has made some huge improvements in their treatment of employees since I started (lowered productivity/billing quota requirement, increased pay), but there are still counties with horrible management that will absolutely traumatize you. Also, there are multiple positions within this company that are much healthier work environments (CET, MAR), so search for those if you can. 

My typical day was coming in early, checking emails and responding to them as quickly and effectively as possible, doing walk through of the facility to ensure facility was operating at capacity with staffing, cleanliness and ensuring any issues were taken care of immediately. Within thirty minutes of administration staff coming in, I held our daily administrators meeting, reviewing incident reports and getting the 24hr report from the Administrator on Call. We discussed any issues pressing in each department and strategizing with the department heads planning what needed to b e taken care of immediately. After the morning meeting, I would often contact Deputy Commissioner of any issues that needed assistance at her level. I had to keep the Appointing Authority and his lawyers abreast of any issues relevant, this often included issues with our Contract agencies and contract staff, along with all state staff issues. There could be several meetings daily with different department heads assisting them on brainstorming and coming up with a strategic plan for issues. Weekly I met with HR and Finance. Finance was a meeting I had to ensure was kept due to budgetary issues and ensuring all contracts and spending needs were on target. Monthly I held a Directors meeting with department heads. Quarterly I held a parents and guardian meeting addressing the vision of the facility and any changes in our goals. We also discussed and allowed open forum for parent and guardian concerns, ensuring each were addressed ASAP beginning with emergent issues. I had to attend Quarterly directors meetings in Frankfort with the Deputy Commissioner, Commissioner, and other department heads in Frankfort. We had quarterly performance meetings and I developed the Performance report with assistance from each department head, explaining our progress or regression and plans for future improvements, this especially included staying with budget, preventing staff turnover and strategic plan progress.  I was part of monthly safety meetings ensuring we were in compliance and ensuring the safety of the residents. My weeks could consist of several staff meetings with addressing grievances, staff issues or disciplinary issues. I met with parents or guardians as needed which could be daily, weekly or monthly depending on the situation and urgency of the situation in which they had concerns. There are so many daily task, meetings, reports and other issues as a Executive Director that I had to accomplish but too many to state in this section.

Mornings would begin with recieving report from nurse from prior shift, reviewing the 24 hr sheet to see what patients needed to be followed up on, then accuchecks.  Next, I would administer morning scheduled medications, chart in notes anyone who needed followed up on, escorted patients to on grounds appointments with staff members, conferred with doctors, attended any meetings if any scheduled.  Approximately 11:00 am I would begin administering afternoon medications, then continue to chart in nursing notes, if needed.  I was assigned to one cottage, but, usually was pulled to another cottage as well as mine; so most days I would have two homes.  I worked with clients that had seizures, g-tubes, and cathaters, did patient teaching, and basic LPN duties.  At the end of the day I would give report to the oncoming nurse, and then go home.  I thouroughly enjoyed working with the individuals I did, they made my job so rewarding.  They are very special people!!  I learned to have compassion and to be grateful for a life without these disabilities.  Honestly, the clients are what kept me there as long as I was, as I didn't agree with the way the facility was ran at times.  My co-workers were wonderful and staff worked really real with the nurses so as to better care for the clients.  The staff have an extremely difficult jobs at times and don't get the credit they deserve; in my opinion.  The hardest part of the job was losing a client, whether it be to moving on to a new facility or passing away; it was always sad to me.  Lastly, working one on one with the clients was the most enjoyable part of my job; I felt I was the fortunate one to have worked with such remarkable clients.

New Vista is the place to work in Central Kentucky if you want to work with a variety of clients. Each client is their own individual person with their own strengths, values, and problems, and I think seeing a variety of different people helps therapists grow into better helpers, especially new therapists. 
The productivity expectation is very reasonable. 92 hours per month-that's less than 25 hours per week in a 40-hour work week. I've come to find that if therapists stopped focusing on the number of people they see and focus more on the therapy they provide, that number will get hit every time without issue (Plus, if we're not seeing at least 25 hours per week, then how are we helping? That's the point, right? To help as many people as we can?)
The documentation is a lot, but I can say that it is all necessary information we need to help our clients in the best possible way. They also offer collaborative documentation trainings to help therapists learn to collaborate with the client to document what happens in session which increases the likelihood they'll return. People actually like being a part of their own treatment! 
New Vista is person-centered, and that goes for the employees as well. New Vista strongly urges employees to practice self-care, encourages collaborative documentation so that we don't have to take work home, and wants us to take vacations. For the most part, New Vista is really supportive of their employees and will stand by them when needed. 
It hasn't always been easy, but I have watched this company grow for years, and it keeps getting better. 
If there's a problem, we can open up and talk about it so that it gets resolved. I'm pretty proud to work here.

I worked as an outpatient clinician and leaving was the best possible thing I chose to do. The management is completely incompetent and fosters a toxic workplace environment of "he said she said."

It seems that this probably begins at higher levels of administration where it is clearly ALL about making money for the top. However, it is the middle management that really makes going to work a terrible experience. 

As for the workload, it is just too much to properly serve clients. The reason for this is because the middle management does not listen to the ground level clinicians and so the upper management likely doesn't hear about the actual conditions of the business where revenue is generated. All of this in the pursuit of middle managers artificially constructing positive self-narratives to the upper management in order to reinforce their own careers.

The coworkers are great and they share a common bond of struggling in a toxic environment alongside you. Everyone feels unimportant at this job, undervalued, and DEFINITELY underpaid. Working as an Outpatient Clinician should start off at $45k-$50k a year instead of $35k-$39k. This won't happen, however, because upper management who you will likely meet once (or never) has to maintain their extravagant six-figure strategies off of your hard work.

The mission of Bluegrass.org is obviously great. Community mental health is so important and the clients can teach us so much. However, it seems hard to achieve at Bluegrass.org due to everything mentioned above.

Overall: Don't waste your time here. Get a job anywhere else.

The work environment was unrelenting.  It was computer program driven with lack of emphasis on clients.  The therapists worked difficult cases, but were hampered with the documentary demands.  The facility was comfortable, but the differences between the demands of management and the attempted productivity of the staff was destabilizing.  When I was there, productivity within an overcomplicated  software system was a major challenge.  Adaptation to computer technology was important. 

A day of work included seeing clients on an hourly basis with little or no time for notes, as typing the clinical note during interviewing/counseling was strongly urged.  Treatment plans and updates were unnecessarily complicated.  Many clients failed to appear, however. Excessive emphasis was placed on data collection during a truncated intake process.  Other counselors had differing levels of adjustment, but many remained.  .  I enjoyed the association with many skilled and dedicated therapists and staff, and working with new therapists-to be was demanding and self- challenging with the many questions, explanations and discussions necessitated.  Much training was offered for professional development,  and a CSW could remain with LCSW supervision available, as was with other professional credentials. The client span included children, families, substance abuse clientele, mental health cases, co-occurring disorders, a great range of needs.  The learning opportunities for the new social worker therapist was great.

I tried to go into working for New Vista with a fresh and open mind. I adored my personal staff in my office and LOVED my office, and the ACM- which she is the reason I stayed as long as I did. 
I DID struggle a lot with upper management/administration. I feel like management seems to forget what its like to be "on the floor" with clients everyday. It is like they don't realize therapists also have their own struggles and forcing someone to work 8-5 with barely a lunch break every single day is so mentally draining. You can push and say "practice self care" all day long, but if you're not giving them the time to practice it throughout the workweek and forcing them into being overloaded everyday, they will be too exhausted to "self care" by the time they get home. 
New Vista is a decent place to work for- but my hope is that they realize the truth in "if you take care of your employees, then the employees are able to better provide for clients". That alone could assist the extremely high turnover, decrease number of unsatisfied employees, improve productivity, and result in consistency in therapists for our clients who are the FOCUS of our services in the first place. Well cared for employees sets the stage for well cared for clients. 
I did enjoy my time there, and my only wish is that they provided a more understanding and supportive environment for their employees so those of us who would've liked to have stayed felt like we could.

A fun and rewarding and sometimes challenging workplace, but, I truly enjoyed my time there.  A typical day of work consisted of receiving and giving nurse report, narcotic count, checking 24 hour report to determine which client required follow up care, accuchecks, administering morning medications while performing some patient teaching, scheduling on ground appointments PRN, reporting to PA during his rounds, administering afternoon medications, as well as PRN medications, assessments of clients, charting, etc.  Management was fine, but, could be stressful at times.  The majority of my co-workers were team players and always willing to help each other out if needed.  The hardest part of the job was dealing with the death of a client or a client transitioning out of the facility.  It is hard not to come to truly care for these special clients and when one would be lost it was a sad time for me; but, never interfered with my ability to perform my duties pertaining to my job description.   The most enjoyable part of this job was working with these very special clients, learning about different illnesses, and, most importantly, seeing a client achieve a certain goal that they had for themselves.  That was always very rewarding to me.

What is the best part of working at the company?
I guess the pay, but long hours negate that positive part. Employer expects 16 hour shifts and sometimes longer. Constant criticism about how you are doing your job. The upper administration acts like they are better than floor staff. They expect too much from employees at lower levels. Don’t provide adequate training for life threatening or dangerous behaviors from individuals you are watching or taking care of. Fire you or lay you off when it suits them or for a reason that they dream up.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Long hours, the idea that no matter how you handle a behavior, even if it’s a very dangerous behavior that could seriously injure another person or kill them, you are in the wrong. Constant criticism of your work performance. Nonchalant attitude towards staff on the floor that are working 16 hour shifts or longer in some cases. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Sometimes the environment is good, depending on the compatibility of the staff working together in one area. But upper management negate the good healthy environment.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Constantly working and usually there is one or two staff that thinks their phone is more important than the clients.

Its all about money here, unfortunately. A certain amount of appointments were needed each month in order to bill insurance. Even if the client didn't need those appointments, or needed more appointments, it didn't matter. It was required that you bill insurance for every client, even if the client list was up to 30 people. Thats 120 appointments in one month with 30 different family schedules. If you didn't reach the goal, you got in BIG trouble. It was insanely stressful. Not to mention, the pay was about $26,000 so not worth it.

Also, the company always seemed SUPER unstable. There were always rumors that our program would be shutting down, that there wasn't enough money for our program, that we were all going to lose our jobs, etc. This was also super stressful. 

Some pros included being about to make school and home visits which got you out of the office and not sitting at a computer all day. There was also an option to work from home on days you had a lot of notes to write which was nice. Management was not micromanaging so that probably how most people lasted so long. All my coworkers were constantly talking about other jobs they were trying to get in order to leave.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Clinician 5 salaries reported	$62,020 per year
Medical assistant 3 salaries reported	$16.33 per hour
Supervisor 1 salary reported	$24,000 per year
Registered nurse 1 salary reported	$70,500 per year
Nursing assistant 1 salary reported	$14.75 per hour

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